Future Card Uses

Whilst we do not know what the future holds for the HillingdonFirst scheme, we can see what one of the consultant companies involved thinks.

Schools & Leisure
On Page 9 of the ITSO CMD Alternatives 20090312 07 SCNF document, it shows that Hillingdon is planning on using the cards for both Schools and Leisure Centres/Swimming etc. How the cards will be used in Schools is unknown.

e-Purse
At the bottom of the Smartran Press Release – Multi-application Resident Card press release, it notes that Hillingdon has been involved in work with the e-purse feature of the card system. e-Purse is a method of putting small amounts of money on a card (loading it) and then using that as cash. Its very similar to an Oyster card. Hillingdon, going by other services (see Parking), will likely keep a history of what you have used and where/when.

Other
In the documents above you can see that other councils use their cards for different reasons. It is very likely Hillingdon has plans to make use of these other services. Questions will remain just who has access to the system and how much data is kept, and why.

Smartran

These images are taken from the Smartran Card Testing document on our downloads page. It makes interesting reading.

Potential HillingdonFirst Card Uses

We know for sure that leisure facilities (swimming centers, sports halls etc) will be linked to the scheme. We don’t know how, whether usage will be tracked, or if there will be some more fake discounts.

Potential HillingdonFirst

This may be a long term view of what the card will bring, but we do know that the scheme has been designed from the start to be linked to other councils which would you to visit Harrow council etc and park on reduced rates and visa versa with their residents (doesnt that defeat the point?). This would involve your card data being transmitted to a central database. We can assume that parking and other use data from outside Hillingdon will then make its way back into the Hillingdon servers for storage.