[RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm]

"Digital-only" = By smartphone app OR by smartcard, i.e. a card like a credit card with a chip and your personal unique ID stored on that.

In other words: You cannot get a plain old paper ticket without personal information, the ticket is like a cookie which identifies you as a user and thus allows you to be tracked.

Disclaimer: Not a resident of Germany.

[schroeding]

> and thus allows you to be tracked

While true, something to note is that german train and metro stations, in general, have no ticket barriers. Tickets are only checked by staff on trains, on a (very) random basis for local / metro trains.

I've had months in which my ticket wasn't checked at all while using it every single day.

[aleph_minus_one]

More tracking will come as soon as the 49 euro ticket becomes more widely spread ... :-(

[dathinab]

no less, because there is now less profit to make from it because now most people have a ticket

I don't think I have been checked a single time in the last 2 years.

[morelisp]

Ticket control in Berlin seems to have gotten extremely centralized. 5y ago it was pretty random where they might walk a few people through scanning on the train, today it's almost always checks on the platform at major hubs / tourist centers. I don't know if this a real change of policy or a side result of the BVG changing their contractors.

[dathinab]

it's about money

they check the place/time combo they are most likely to find a person without ticket most often

[morelisp]

Even if this is true it's a change.

[aleph_minus_one]

> I don't think I have been checked a single time in the last 2 years.

My experience differs a lot: I go by train (in Germany) rather often and would say that it was more common to be checked than not (i.e. for me the probability of being checked was more than 1/2).

[dathinab]

like public "city" transportation or regional trains?

in regional trains you get checked more often (longer distances, less passenger exchange and per-train personal have this as a side effect), but already it's somewhat tricky to have a regional train ticket which is not linked to your name

in public "city" transportation it's semi-random but also there are times & stations where statistically it's most likely to find someone without an ticket and in turn this places/times get checked very frequent and if you are there every day at the specific time-frames you are unlucky and also get checked very frequent. But most times and place combinations do not have this issue and some are close to guaranteed that you don't get checked.

[lispm]

> ticket is like a cookie which identifies you as a user and thus allows you to be tracked

local trains, underground trains, busses and ferries here in Hamburg has no regular ticket checks whatsoever. No checks -> they can't track people via the ticket.

[dathinab]

same for most of Germany

[jonp888]

As far as I know no such tracking occurs and to do so would be illegal under German law.

In London meanwhile, you can a weekly PDF statement showing exactly where you were and when! :)

[_cenw]

The neoliberals insisted on that so that the very poor or those without a bank account would not be able to get it, not because of any kind of tracking. No system in Germany has gates and ticket checks are so rare, it's not really viable for tracking.

[kanbara]

this sort of tracking is illegal and not done. berlin had to cancel its rollout of smart cards and tapping some years ago due to leaking of personal information. you just wave the card when you get on the bus, or just not at all