WMATA Responds
Earlier I wrote about the DC Metro Smartrip Cards. WMATA responded that their entry/exit data is by time/date/location. They also responded that they do associate credit card data with a given Smartrip card when it is used to add value to the card.
They said they keep their data for 12 months in an active format, after which it is archived. It thus appears that they know who you are and where you have gone. Forever.
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Why do they maintain this information? Besides the obvious use for data mining, I imagined this might have something due to the need for WMATA to keep track of smarttrip users in applying metrocheck value to their smartrip card via an association of the user’s tax id/employer identification with the smarttrip uid.
With metrochecks, commuters opting into the program receive special checks, pretaxed income drawn from their salaries, from WMATA to add value to their card. But for some reason the value isn’t added directly to an online account. Rather, WMATA prints thse metrochecks and has commuters add the value to their cards manually via the kiosk. The only value added by this inconvenience is that the money drawn from the commuter’s salary for the fare is pretaxed income.
WMATA would have a better excuse for tying the smartrip card with a users personal info if the card was used like a credit or debit card — but it’s not. The only practical connection it has to your personal id is in case it gets lost or stolen they can void it and sned a new one to you.
WMATA may also want to keep a record of commuter travels — their smarttrip database must be an invaluable resource for doing transportation modeling and trip analyses. But I can’t understand why they would need to keep the data on your travels at all associated with your personal information. Those two datasets should be kept separate and the trip info anonymous.
The only reason the two datasets could easily be recombined is because of the smartrips uid being associated with both. I don’t think they need to keep the smarttrip uid for the purposes of modeling or analysis — they could exchange one uid for another and wipe the original.
Comment by Aharon — 2/8/2005 @ 12:00 am
‘The only reason the two datasets could easily be recombined is because of the smartrips uid being associated with both. I don’t think they need to keep the smarttrip uid for the purposes of modeling or analysis – they could exchange one uid for another and wipe the original.’
This is a common problem concerning privacy in today’s data-collection world: the fact that it actually takes EXTRA effort to NOT keep data about people.
Comment by luminous — 2/8/2005 @ 12:11 am