"Public" transport
For more than 20 years Thales - A defense industry corporation, has been heavily involved in building and maintaining the ticketing software and infrastructure of Dutch public transport: the gates, validators and machines through which millions of people entered trains, metros, buses.
With every OV validation travellers unknowingly used devices manufactured by a defence company and provided it with their data.
The work implicates the ordinary commuter as unwillingly embedded in a system whose suppliers are invisible until you look closely. With no way around it everyone willing to travel is forced to participate.
Thales to this day remains present in the secure identity/payment layer of Dutch public transport.
What does it mean when the infrastructure of everyday trust is made by a company whose other products are designed for warfare?
Priced at the publicly reported estimated unit value of the missiles: approx. 35 000€ per piece.
