We're seeing a sort of Wal-Martisation of this world - Pundit on BBC Radio 4
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Dutch boffins work on open sauce smart card
DUTCH BOFFINS at Radboud University in Nijmegen are developing new privacy-protecting smart cards for public transport, using good old open sauce.
The cards, which should tip up sometime around 2010, are being developed using cryptographic techniques, which means passengers will be able to buy personalised cards which don’t track or keep tabs on their movements, thereby protecting their privacy.
A Dutch charity called the NLnet foundation recently donated money to the researchers at Radboud University, headed by Prof Bart Jacobs and Dr Wouter Teepe of the Digital Security Group, to help them continue with their development of the cards. The charity is giving the grant in order to ensure that the privacy of the passengers remains the researchers’ chief concern, despite the cards being manufactured as a commercial product.
Strategy director at NLnet foundation, Michiel Leenaars, noted how important it was that the cards be developed using an open sauce platform. "By putting the development in an open context and embedding privacy in the design phase - and not as an afterthought - we hope to lay the foundations for a next-generation smart card for public transport in the Netherlands and beyond that works and really is worth the full confidence of consumers," he noted.
All the software used in developing the smartcard v2.0, as its being called, will apparently be open sauce, so anyone can feel free to take a peek at the code and see if it all works properly.
Transparency is a wonderful thing, more countries might like to try it. µ
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I'd like to point out that they already decided a RFID ticket system in holland, and the transport company in admitted they wanted to use the gathered data on people's movement for commercial reasons, in that system you buy a RFID card that's tied to your personal data and that means there's a log of wherever you went, although there is also a non-personal card but that one they deliberately made extra expensive to discourage people using it. Fortunately though it turned out hackers/students could easily hack and copy the card and travel for free which makes the whole thing a disaster for the people that thought it up.
And incidentally, under current law ANY cop is allowed to access such logs as the transporter would keep, and that's why it's fascist, it's 'coincidentally' a easy way to track everybody that uses public transport, and seeing it's electronic they can probably get live updates.
The fact is that modern western governments DO spy on innocent people MASSIVELY, and that's not a 'paranoid ramble' since they openly admitted it already more than once.
Oh well, I guess there's a whole truckload of misconceptions floating around this topic.

Many installed smart card schemes have limited privacy features and limited security, not because "RFID is bad" or even "fascist" (thanks W.- for that interesting point of view), but just because the implementing authority chose to save money.
If more security is wanted, all they need to do is to buy a better product, which is available commercially today. Forget not, smart card chips are basically full blown computers that can run any type of application on a variety of operating systems.
And note: Radbout University's main interest is not necessarily consumer safety and privacy either. They need to position itself in the increasingly competitve market of education suppliers. For PR reasons, they figured that "healing the bad, bad RFID technology" might be a nice move.
Ya confidential my ass. I would not have anything to hide but, Christ you get CCD cameras there in England and now they can track you if you decide to use transit. Wow, no thanks.

From 1 guy here in Canada keep that bit of nonsence to yourself.
There is already a smartcard that you can use that doesn't keep track of you, and it lets you use public transport. It's called money. It comes in paper and coin form, and anyone can use it. Most people already are confident with it, and it's unlikely anyone who steals your "money" will find out who you are, where you live, etc.
The whole reason they pushed the RFID card for public transport was to track people, both for commercial as well as fascist motives, and they admitted to that, although the fascist are crying foul to the commercialism and the capitalist to the fascism, typically.