Campus ID News
Card, mobile credential, payment and security
FEATURED
PARTNERS
Thowback Thursday Slider 1 1

TBT: Debunking the demagnetized card myth

Andrew Hudson   ||   Jan 14, 2016  ||   ,

In honor of Throwback Thursday, each week we're going to pull and review a story from the CR80News archives. With any luck, in the time since these stories originally broke some form of progress will have been made, predictions will have come true -- or not -- and at the very least we can sit back and wonder what we were thinking.

The first edition of Throwback Thursday isn't the furthest jump back in time, but it's one of CR80News' most highly trafficked stories year after year. It's the infamous "cell phone demagnetizing a key card" myth. This story has been so popular over the years that it merited an update in 2011, and still the hits keep coming.

Citing a CPI Card Group study conducted in 2009, card users experienced issues while carrying mag stripe movie theater cards in their pockets with a cell phone.

Crucially, though, mag stripes vary in their coercivity, with higher coercivity stripes -- typically deployed on credit cards -- being more resistant to demagnetization than hotel key cards that traditionally fall lower on the coercivity scale. The lower the coercivity the more susceptible the card will be to demagnetization, but questions have long existed as to whether a cell phone has a powerful enough magnetic force to impact even a low coercivity card.

It's not clear exactly why this story remains so popular years after being published, but with mag stripe technology still a mainstay on a great number of college campuses nationwide, it is clear that fundamental questions surrounding mag stripe technology are still being asked.

From 2011, here's Mythbusters: Can a mobile phone erase a hotel key card?

To keep up with Throwback Thursday stories and other key happenings, follow and engage with CR80News on Twitter.

Related Posts

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

RECENT ARTICLES

High school bathroom

Bathroom breaks tracked by campus ID and mobile app

At California’s Fresno High, a new app is authorizing and monitoring trips to the bathroom in an effort to increase students’ time in class and decrease gathering in halls and bathrooms. Of course, this has not gone over well with students. Raising your hand and asking the teacher if you can go to the bathroom […]
Atrium Ozzi container

Atrium clients track check-out and return of reusable containers at OZZI kiosks

The push to reduce or even eliminate single-use containers from campus dining is now easier for Atrium clients. Thanks to a seamless integration between Atrium and the OZZI reusable container program, the processes for both students and dining services is streamlined. Atrium clients have been using OZZI for years, but the two systems were independent. […]
HID report snapshot

Security industry’s top trends include mobile IDs, MFA and sustainability

The 2024 State of the Security Industry Report from HID Global studies trends and changes in the security industry. This year six major themes emerged surrounding mobile identity, multi-factor authentication, biometrics, AI, and sustainability. The research includes data from more than 2,500 individuals – partners, end users, and security/IT personnel – from around the globe. Respondents […]
CIDN logo reversed
The only publication dedicated to the use of campus cards, mobile credentials, identity and security technology in the education market. CampusIDNews – formerly CR80News – has served more than 6,500 subscribers for more than two decades.
Twitter

Feb. 1 webinar explores how mobile ordering enhanced campus life, increased sales at UVA and Central Washington @Grubhub @CBORD

Join Jeff Koziol and Robert Gaulden from @AllegionUS as we explore how mobile credentials and proptech are changing on- and off-campus housing.

Load More...
Contact
CampusIDNews is published by AVISIAN Publishing
315 E. Georgia St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
www.AVISIAN.com[email protected]
Use our contact form to submit tips, corrections, or questions to our team.
©2024 CampusIDNews. All rights reserved.