Nexus - 0204 - New Times Magazine-pages

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as an Australia Card, or some other sort of numbering system were well underway. The government's "initiatives" in the area of mon- itoring and surveillance had been made clear in federal parliament on 12th June 1986, with the tabling of Parliamentary Paper No. 173. Parliamentary Paper No. 173, "Towards A Cashless Society, A Report to the Prime Minister" was prepared by the Technological Change Committee of ASTEC, (Australian Science & Technology Council), which comes under the auspices of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The report deals with EFTPOS - Electronic Funds Transfer at the Point Of Sale. EFTPOS, as we know it today, is a fast payment system used in conjunction with Automatic Teller Cards. To make an EFT transaction, the magnetic stripe on a person's Teller card is swiped through a card reader, a PIN - Personal Identification Number is entered in the PIN pad, the customer's bank account is automatically debited for the amount of the pur- chase. As well as being a payment system, EFTPOS is also an excellent surveillance system. assigned a group of informatics specialists to develop a system of surveillance for all citizens in a manner neither obvious nor intru- sive; their recommendation was a national EFTPOS system. "Towards A Cashless Society" reproduces this excerpt from the CSIS report: (see page 16) This surveillance sheet clearly illustrates the type of monitoring that could occur through the use of Electronic Funds Transfer sys- tems. Not only is this an infringement of privacy but the possibil- ities for keeping track of politically active people are particularly alarming. The September 1987 report by the Commission For The Future - "Issues For A Cashless Society", provides an 'Australianised' ver- sion of the same daily surveillance sheet. By February, 1988, major Australian newspapers were reporting the onslaught of the cashless society. EFTPOS was expanding its electronic tentacles across Australia. In March 1988, every bank, building society and credit union were linked together on the one system. The evolution of the electronic banking system has been an on- going process. Australian Banks are linked electronically to each other in financial communications and networks. They are also part of a global network for Electronics Funds Transfer. Electronic banking in Australia had its origins in the late 1960s when the Commonwealth Bank Computer Centre started to use Magnetic Ink Character Recognition to enable the information on the bottom line of cheques and vouchers to be read by computer. In the early 1970s the Central Magnetic Tape Exchange was set up to process large volume electronic transactions. In 1973, SWIFT - the Society for World Wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications was established, providing Australian banks with international links. "Compulsory use of EFTPOS could, in fact, substitute for many of the proposed uses of an Australia Card." The EFTPOS network is now so extensive that it can be used anywhere - shopping, to buy groceries, clothes, hardware, petrol, to pay bills including electricity, phone, gas, rates, to post letters - (Australia Post's Counter Service), and even to make phone calls (Telecom Card Phone). As well as being a payment system, EFTPOS is also a surveil- lance system. The report states ... "Governments could profit from the type of information generated through EFTPOS and related systems. EFTs could also save the Government Departments, much routine infor - mation processing, especially in those dealing with welfare payments. As a large proportion of benefits are now paid directly into bank accounts, the links are there for banks, for example, to contract to transfer other information such as change of address or status once, instead of both banks and government departments duplicating these administrative details." "The ability of EFTPOS to provide information could also be used. If it were used universally, EFTPOS could provide unobtrusive means for the surveillance of all actions involv - ing purchases. This could be achieved through using comput - ers to amass individual profiles of consumer spending, includ - ing times, place, items bought and so on. In this way income could also be matched with expenditure." "Compulsory use of EFTPOS could, in fact, substitute for many of the proposed uses of an Australia Card." The idea of being able to keep citizens under electronic surveil- lance by using the Electronic Funds Transfer System was docu- mented in 1971 by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at Georgetown University (USA). When the centre NEXUS - 13 JULY/AUGUST 1991 *- YEAR BOOK