the.com/keycard
plastic loyalty that forgets you the second checkout ends
means A flat plastic card encoded with data—usually on a magnetic stripe or chip—that unlocks a door or grants access when swiped, tapped, or inserted.
from A plain compound of "key" and "card," stitched together in the latter half of the 20th century when hotels and offices swapped brass keys for plastic. "Key" is ancient Germanic, from Old English "cæg," a word for the thing that turns a lock; "card" comes through French "carte" from Latin "charta," a leaf of papyrus or paper. So the name literally means "a paper that opens things"—fitting for a slip of plastic pretending to be both.
- hidden data
- most store nothing but a room number
- magstripe myth
- phones rarely demagnetize them; heat does
- first hotel
- Westin debuted electronic locks in 1979
- landfill toll
- millions tossed yearly, mostly unrecyclable PVC
- hack risk
- old models cloned in seconds with cheap readers
hotel key card — ubiquitous plastic room access cards used in hotels worldwide since the 1970s magnetic stripe era
employee access card — corporate security cards used at companies like google, apple, and microsoft to enter offices and secure areas
transit fare card — london oyster card, nyc metrocard, and tokyo suica enable payment and access on public transportation systems