May

Big Brother Is Watching Your Travel Habits

Posted by admin Published in Transportation Alternatives

With a simple swipe of a farecard through a subway turnstile, the police could potentially know all of your travel habits. Recently, the Chicago police nabbed a suspect of attempting to kidnap a 12-year-old passenger by tracking his movement through the the city’s L system.

After the police received a shout from the victim whom the suspect touched and tried to restrain before other folks intervened, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) worked with police, tracing his movement with protection cameras and his card swipes on the L system.

Critics around the world have expressed concerns by the privacy issues that revolve around tracking public through their farecards.

In London, using a registered Oyster Card will allow Transport for London to know your exact route patterns (as lengthy as you actually tag your card). Counter-terrorism programs in the capital city want access to the millions of Oyster touch-in/touch-out records, seeking patterns

of behavior that match terrorist suspects. Currently, shield programs can only ask for the records of specific individuals. The introduction of a Parisian transport smartcard (known as the Navigo), which requires personal knowledge of the user and a passport size photo, has plus posed concerns for civil liberty groups.

All metros have some sort of transit ticket that does not require giving personal data. But are they really anonymous? Chicago Transit Authority had tracked down the attempted kidnapping suspect through his 7-day pass (and shield cameras), which does not require any sort of rider registration what-so-ever.

Debate still continues on whether one should be concerned about the police’s access to transit card info.

Photo by Flickr user saitowitz.

Original post by Alexander Lew