Technology is constantly moving forward and most services are now managed by automated machines. Vending machines are the most popular example and are used to sell a wide range of products. For example: cigarettes, alcoholic drinks, sex items, scratch and win tickets, as well as many others…
But it should be noted that these machines provide the opportunity for everybody to buy the stored items even if some of the said items cannot be sold to underage individuals.
Usually the machines have a card reader that is able to read the client’s date of birth in order to verify the client’s age. The cards which can be used include the identity card (in electronic format), the national health card, the provincial or regional health card, the tax code card…
In actual fact, from a survey, we have confirmed that in some instances, these readers accept any type of card which, in its memory, contains data that can be interpreted like the date of birth. It was even possible to purchase pornographic material by simply using a Points Card of a well known supermarket chain or even through an expired health card or a card belonging to a deceased person!
In these last two instances it is easy to understand that a minor could have come in possession of one of these cards in order to gain access to the prohibited services.
The regulations are in force but it is very easy to bypass them.
The main problem, in the operations carried out through an automated machine, arises from the fact that the card and user are two separate entities. The card could be valid but the user is not the actual owner.
The card should necessarily be closely linked to its owner in order to avoid this problem.
In fact the PrivacyCard is a perfect fit since the card is linked to its legitimate owner and has to be validated through the individual’s fingerprint.
In addition, it is compliant with the regulations related to the citizen’s protection of privacy since all the information contained in the card will remain the citizen’s property.
PrivacyCard guarantees that the card data can only be read by specific readers. The same reader will “filter” the data available on the card in order to ensure that only the data required for the requested transaction will be made available. For example, the cigarette vending machine reader will only be able to read the client’s date of birth without gaining access to the other data related to gender, address, etc..
Therefore, in order to make the various existing machines, which offer products and/or services to persons having a higher age limit, legally compliant, it will be necessary to simply apply the specific readers to the different machines and to provide the PrivacyCard to the citizens.
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