Born to be smart The smart card: A personal, mobile treasurer by Becky Chu P eople’s dream of paying all bills in the most convenient way is likely to come true with the appearance of the smart card. Smart card has the similar size and thickness of a credit card. However, integrated circuit chips which have greater storage capacity instead of magnetic strip are used. Said Dr. Wong Po Choi, a lecturer of the Department of Information Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong: “Integrated circuit chips are just like minicomputers. They provide the smart card with diverse functions such as making monetary transactions and storing information.” Appearing first in France in the early ’80s, the smart card has been sweeping most of the developed countries in Europe and North America. In Hong Kong, though still at its developing stage, the smart card is taking root in different fields. The recent trials of smart cards conducted by The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Hongkong Telecom and Hospital Authority are cases in point. Recently, the Hongkong Bank in the United Kingdom is running a trial on the Mondex device, one of the smart card applications. It will be introduced to Hong Kong afterwards. “The main aim of the Mondex is to provide people with an alternative in spending cash,” said Ms Manjoosh Joshi, the project manager of the retail marketing and planning division of the Hongkong Bank. The Mondex device, when using together with an electronic wallet, as well as a balanced reader, enables card holders to transfer monetary value from their bank accounts to Mondex cards. Electronic wallet is the machine used for transferring money from bank accounts to Mondex cards. And the balanced reader is used to check the monetary value in the Mondex cards. Card holders can make payments wherever the Mondex sign is displayed by simply inserting the cards into a retail point-of-sale terminal without authorization or signature. As notes and coins exchange is no longer needed, the whole transaction process only takes a few seconds. The Mondex card also keeps the record of the last 10 transactions in which users can check whenever in need. According to Ms Joshi, Mondex will be introduced to Hong Kong in 1997. “We’re now discussing with retailers. Their responses are very positive. In fact, we hope people will use Mondex in the future wherever they use cash now,” she said. The Hongkong Telecom has also been introducing the smart card since June. Basically, there is no difference between the smart telephone card and the ordinary telephone card. Going further, the smart telephone card will become multi-functional in the future. Besides making phone calls, it can also be used to pay traffic fee and make bank transactions. Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority plans to use the smart card for storing patients’ records. The patient smart card stores the lifetime medical care received by card holders. Details of each health treatment will be added in the storage. It helps doctors to get basic information of patients, thus eliminating problems in transferring medical records among departments of hospitals. The application of the smart card system is being tested in Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Queen Mary hospital. Now, different smart cards are used separately in different fields. People have to hold several cards. However, it is expected that one smart card is enough for all daily transactions someday. Dr. Wong said, “It’ll be feasible within two or three years. It depends on the willingness of the owners of different smart card systems to cooperate with one another.” However, there is always another picture created out of each technological breakthrough. Mr. Eric Ma, a lecturer of the Department of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University, said that smart cards may lead to the risk of intervening people’s privacy. Said he: “The smart card is a high centralization of personal records. There will be a possible crisis that personal information will be accessible by some political power without card holders’ consents under an autocratic rule.” Mr. Ma thus suggested that along with the growing popularity of the smart card, a sound legal system must be established to protect the privacy of card holders. Considering the rapid development of technology such as the development of smart card, Dr. Wong added another potential crisis. He worried that human beings are so dependent on machines and electronic systems that social order may probably be disturbed once the systems break down. According to Dr. Wong, it is an inevitable problem with the continuous development of technology. People can only try their best to avoid technical errors. “We should manipulate technology, instead of being manipulated,” said Dr. Wong.