Computerworld Discovers Hotel Keycard Myth Is, Indeed, A Myth

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

from the crack-reporting dept

Last September we were quite surprised to see a Computerworld reporter place a story on his blog warning people that hotels were putting personal info on the keycards that let you into rooms. As we pointed out, that story was an extremely well-known urban legend that had been debunked repeatedly by many sources. As such, it seemed odd that anyone would report it again without getting plenty of evidence to back it up. The reporter in question, Robert Mitchell, defended the posting in our comments, but also set out to collect as many of these keycards as he could, while discussing the issue with plenty of industry insiders so he could write an actual article on it. Shocker of all shockers, he discovered that, as everyone expected, it’s just a key to your room and stores absolutely no personal data. In other words, exactly what pretty much everyone knew before — which is why it’s a bit amusing to see the Computerworld sub-head claim that it’s “exploding the urban myth.” Next up: Computerworld will tell us that Bill Gates really isn’t paying people to send email. Meanwhile, it’s still quite odd that Mitchell’s original source, Peter Wallace, IT Director at AAA Reading-Berks in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, now refuses to comment at all on his original claims that resulted in this wild goose chase. Of course, thanks to the ongoing life of this story, hotels are actively looking at alternatives, because they’re sick of explaining to people that there’s nothing to worry about.