A recent article in the Independent on Sunday reported on insecurities with the popular Oyster card. The article suggests that anyone can find the details of every journey made in the past ten weeks with the card - as long as they either have the card itself, or its serial number.

Quite a security risk, from the sounds of things. And the Independent leaps on what they feel to be the most serious risk to personal security that this presents: the chance of being caught cheating on your partner. Not stalking, not terrorism; just good-old infidelity.

The article goes on to examine other ways technology can catch cheating husbands - monitoring text messages, or even the precise location of a mobile phone. But it’s all a little sensationalist. Yes, it probably ought to be more difficult to retrieve data from the cards, but it’s important that that data exist. It’s a very useful tool for the police, for instance; The Register point this (and other pearls of common-sense) out in their considered response to the original article. The article taps into a common modern neurosis - the idea that “everything we do” is monitored. It’s integral to the nature of these services that they are monitored. The Oyster card gives Transport for London useful market research, for instance. Mobile phones can’t function without knowing which “cell” they’re in. Credit card bills have long been tell-tales of infidelity, but we’d all still rather know where the charges on them came from, for our own piece of mind.

We all give off data about ourselves like exhaust-fumes, every day, everywhere we go - and we have been doing so for decades. The only change new technology brings is the speed that data can be acquired, and the level of detail within it. So if you are looking to cheat on your partner - something we on the NMA blog would never condone - you’re best off taking the low tech route: leave your mobile at home, get a taxi, and always, always, pay with cash.