Z:gnu-www-ja-surveillance-vs-democracy--acd19c-Systems for borrowing bicycles/en

Systems for borrowing bicycles, etc., can be designed so that the borrower's identity is known only inside the station where the item was borrowed. Borrowing would inform all stations that the item is &ldquo;out,&rdquo; so when the user returns it at any station (in general, a different one), that station will know where and when that item was borrowed. It will inform the other station that the item is no longer &ldquo;out.&rdquo; It will also calculate the user's bill, and send it (after waiting some random number of minutes) to headquarters along a ring of stations, so that headquarters would not find out which station the bill came from. Once this is done, the return station would forget all about the transaction. If an item remains &ldquo;out&rdquo; for too long, the station where it was borrowed can inform headquarters; in that case, it could send the borrower's identity immediately.