Big Brother Is Watching Your Travel Habits
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 call from the victim whom the suspect touched and tried to restrain before other people intervened, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) worked with police, tracing his movement with security cameras and his card swipes on the L system.
Critics around the world have expressed concerns over the privacy issues that revolve around tracking people through their farecards.
In London, using a registered Oyster Card will allow Transport for London to know your exact route patterns (as long 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, security programs can only ask for the records of specific individuals. The introduction of a Parisian transport smartcard (known as the Navigo), which requires personal information of the user and a passport size photo, has also posed concerns for civil liberty groups.
All metros have some sort of transit ticket that does not require giving personal information. But are they really anonymous? Chicago Transit Authority had tracked down the attempted kidnapping suspect through his 7-day pass (and security 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 information.
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