SF Bay Area transit cards reveal travelers' whereabouts to police, lawyers, apps
Source: Bay Citizen
... The request for McCahill’s travel record was one of the rare occasions that police or lawyers have sought to use the Clipper card database to track the whereabouts of a cardholder.
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which administers the card, it has received three search warrants or subpoenas seeking customers’ personal travel information since the card’s inception in 2010. In only one of those cases did the search turn up any relevant travel information, according to the commission’s response to a public records request from The Bay Citizen.
Use of the card, accepted by every major Bay Area public transit system, is soaring with 689,000 transactions a day and more than 1 million active Clipper cards. Many cardholders might not realize that data tracking their every move on public transit is stored on computers and available to anyone with a search warrant or subpoena. Personal data can be stored for seven years after a Clipper account is closed, according to the commission’s policy.
In addition, a new smartphone app, called FareBot, allows anyone to scan a Clipper card and find out where the owner has been.
Privacy advocates say the transportation commission should not store data on individuals’ locations.
Read more: http://www.baycitizen.org/transportation/story/clipper-cards-reveal-travelers-police/
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