I couldn’t find this anywhere, apologies if it’s been asked and I missed it. I have been annoyed by this for a while and haven’t figured out a solution. The magnetic strip on my ARC in my wallet interferes with the magnetism of my yoyo card so I have to take the card out to swipe it every time. Has anyone figured out a way to cover the ARC and block it’s evil magnetism so I can just swipe my wallet? Thanks for any ideas.
Does the ARC have a magnetic strip? I just see a bar code - no magnetic strip and no chip.
Sure it’s not a bank card doing the interfering? (I have that problem)
Hmmm… neither the JoJo (=Easy) card nor the ARC have an “magnetic stripe” as far as I can tell from looking at it.
For the Easycard I know for sure that it uses an MIFARE contactless smartcard system chip with a wire as antenna, because I dissected a few MRT Tokens and Easycards by Acetone for recreational purposes ^_^. So we are looking at some kind of radio transmission, not really magnetic stripe or similar.
Anyway, from experiments I know for sure that the Easycard won’t work well when anything is shielding the radio transmission, like a metal piece, or even being very close to a phone’s battery seems to make it not work any more.
My best guess is that both ARC and Easycard use the same kind of chip/antenna and somehow interfere. I had that with my building access card plus the Easycard. If you don’t need the ARC often, you could try to wrap your ARC in tin foil and store it as far away from the Easycard as possible - but I don’t know if that works in your case.
But maybe there is an contactless smart card expert here that can actually give some insight?
Olm, you’re right. I was looking in the wrong place for the chip on my ARC. It’s there for sure - right in the same place as the Easycard one.
I had the same problem, so I put my ARC and my Yoyo card on opposite sides of my wallet and just flip open my wallet when I swipe it. Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best. 
Yep, try to get them spaced as much as possible. I hope the OP can already fix his issue with this 
Ah, I thought you mean one of these chips that are contacted by golden contacts on the card surface. So how did you verify the chip position? Put your ARC in Acetone like I did with the EasyCard? 
Yep, try to get them spaced as much as possible. I hope the OP can already fix his issue with this
Ah, I thought you mean one of these chips that are contacted by golden contacts on the card surface. So how did you verify the chip position? Put your ARC in Acetone like I did with the EasyCard? :p[/quote]
Yeah, that was my problem, I was looking for the golden contact one. This one is just a little rectangular indent you can see if you look at the back of your card, near the top left-hand corner. You’ll need to reflect a light source off the back of the card to really see it. Exactly the same position on your Yoyo card.
Aaaah there it is. Thanks! Well, now I know where to punch a hole in the ARC if I don’t want it to radio my details to everyone who happens to sniff 
I have this problem too, and I’ve resorted to simply not carrying my ARC on a daily basis. My national health insurance card is usually sufficient for ID and doesn’t interfere with the EasyCard. Occasionally get into trouble when I do a bank transaction though.
In Hong Kong, though, the Octopus Card swipes perfectly fine with the ARC in the same wallet. So there you have it, Taiwan is just making it easier for foreigners to stay foreign.
I had no idea that ARC uses RFID technology like the Easycard… must be there for “Fraud Prevention” (or so they can GPS track every registered foreigners in Taiwan… which is possible with those technology by the way)
The Taiwan ID (the new type) doesn’t have anything like that… weird. I would think if someone wanted to fake someone’s identity they’d fake an ID card rather than an ARC…
Be careful with these newer chipped passports too, as it can also interfere with those Easycards. Although I don’t think anyone in their right mind would carry their passport in their wallet… unless you have a residence permit in Germany (because the law there requires ALL foreigners there to carry their passport at all times)
Wow, you a conspiracy theorist much…?
You can’t track an RFID chip from a GPS satellite, as for one RFID cards aren’t powered, the reader powers the RFID chip remotely and secondly, you’d need a GPS transmitter for that to work and they require a fair bit of power to send a signal.
There are several different types of RFID solutions and obviously someone screwed up here and used the same solution for the Yoyo cards and the ARC’s which is the typical kind of fuckup you’d expect here… Although I can’t say I’ve been having any such problems, but I have a coin in-between my ARC and my Yoyo card and it might just be enough insulation…?
And no, I don’t have to carry my passport in Germany and never has when I’ve been there, in fact, I don’t even need a passport to travel there…
Sorry…
I don’t mean to sound all conspiracy and stuff.
I do know if they deployed scanners in the right place they can very well track people with RFID cards. Maybe not as a satellite solution.
I do not know about the requirement to carry your passport with you at all times in Germany. I heard that from some other foreigners. But the fact is, if you were stopped or flagged by an officer, how would he verify your identity if you are not a citizen? A German have their ID card but as far as I know their “ARC” is stuck in a passport page. In fact my “ARC” there was glued to a passport page, so it seems plausible that you need your passport with you to use as identity.
Since you are a EU citizen, no one would be checking your passport… and besides, you don’t look that foreign there anyways, at least not like Asians.
Oh, they do check my passport when I enter the country, at least by plane. However, my drivers license would count as ID and that would be good enough and that doesn’t have an RFID chip in it.
Legal RFID scanners only have a range of about 1m or so, so it’s not so easy to just scan them and then you need to know what you’re scanning to be able to make any sense of the data on an RFID card. It’s by no means impossible to read RFID cards at a longer distance with “home made” scanners, but no, you can’t track them in the way you think.
The issue I have with RFID in passports is that there’s no encryption, which is really piss poor. Most travel cards have more security than your average RFID passport… scary thought huh?
Well, the good thing is, I don’t think anyone’s all that interested in Taiwanese passports…
In Taiwan, the most important document for a Taiwanese is the ID card… just about any legal or commercial functions are impossible without it. I have never seen anyone use a passport instead of an ID card, unless it’s a foreigner. I am sure people somehow successfully forge the ID card but I am not sure what are the chances of that… Besides if you were faking one for the purpose of residence, it would be difficult since your ID card is tied to your houkou, so if the ID number and the houkou on the government’s record doesn’t match the ones in the card, then it’d raise some eyebrow.
I have been told to keep them secure though because anyone can use your ID card and a chop to pretty much impersonate you. Some used them to get loans from loansharks. That is why I do not use chops.
Any photo id is ok (such as driving license). I look forward to the new cheque-card format id in germany.
anyone ever read the arc? wonder whatw rfid data it can provide…
Any photo id is ok (such as driving license). I look forward to the new cheque-card format id in germany.
anyone ever read the arc? wonder whatw rfid data it can provide…[/quote]
I would hope so… carrying passport with me at all time is not only cumbersome, it’s risky too.
I do not have a driver’s license and I doubt a Taiwanese license/ID card would do much good… it’s all in Chinese. Getting a DL in Germany is very expensive… although the right to drive at 200+ mph at the autobahn is kinda worth the trouble for some…