In message

..net, at 16:16:36 on Tue, 18 Dec 2012, Neil Williams
remarked:
But the facility in question is being sold as an *alternative* to the
retailer having to install such a POS system with instant access to their
internal database of historical transactions.

Is it really? Can you quote some text suggesting that?

"Retailers will be able to use data stored inside Visa payWave payment
card to deliver targeted messages at the point of sale. For example, a
coffee chain can recognize an infrequent customer that has not been to
the chain in over 30 days, and instantly print an offer at the bottom of
the card receipt, encouraging the customer to return soon. It can be
difficult and expensive for merchants to achieve a similar result using
existing data mining and direct marketing techniques, whereas with Visa
payWave, the feature is built into the payment transaction and the offer
is simply printed at the bottom of the receipt,"

Bus ticket inspections could be done by having the ticket machine print out
a ticket containing the last 4 digits of each credit card used during that
journey, perhaps. Or more technologically, communicate it to the
electronic gripping irons.

They could, yes. But *are* they? (Minor niggle: the Paywave terminals on
the buses don't have printers).

Aren't they just using the Oyster pads to read them? Those are part of the
ticket machine, which does have a printer.

Are they linked together sufficiently to be capable of printing such a
list?

--
Roland Perry