Here is a scary thought of the day:
My friend recently lost his Cashcard with about $30 in it, when some thief stole it from his car parked at Parkway Parade. He decided to let it slide, since it was not a big deal of money.
A few weeks later, he got a call from the police, telling him they caught the CashCard thief, and telling him that he could come and get his card back after the court case.
He was shocked, because he made no police report after it was stolen and bought the Cashcard from a 7-11 anonymously.
"You lost a Cashcard recently, right?" said the officer on the phone.
"Yes, I did, but..."
"Can you tell me where you lost it?" the officer asked, like he knew the answer.
"At Parkway, in the carpark," replied my flabbergasted friend.
"Yes, then we would like to inform you that we caught the thief, and you can collect your card after the court case in about three weeks."
So, if you think you are driving around anonymously in Singapore, think again.
An Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry and/or the carpark Cashcard system must have collected data from both his Cashcard and his ERP In-Vehicle Unit (IU) serial number (which is unique to every car), and either stored it on the CashCard itself, or in some ERP database.
Heck, I bet they even read the ERP IU serial number from your car passively, every time you drive under one of those ERP gantries, even when the gantry is not "on".
Beep. "There goes Mrs Lim to Shenton Way again. Must be on her way to work"
Beep. "What is Mr Tan doing going through the Kallang gantry at this hour? He works in Jurong."
Beep. "Hmmm, that's strange. mr brown is driving past Sim Lim Square at 4pm on a Saturday. Doesn't he have to take care of the kids usually at this time?"
I don't know whether to be happy we have an efficient police force that can return your stolen goods to you even if you did not make a police report, or be terrified at the thought that nothing escapes the Eye of Sauron.
