Cards let Metro collect data on riders, track trips

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Metro's SmarTrip fare cards allow the transit agency to monitor passengers' travel with little regard for privacy concerns, a group focused on privacy issues says.

The SmarTrip fare card, which includes an embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, tracks each rider's travel and can be matched with the rider's name, address and credit-card number, according to the District-based nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC).

"Our basic point is that there is a lot of detailed information being collected," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC, a public-interest group established in 1994 to focus attention on emerging threats to civil liberties. "The privacy protections, in our opinion, are inadequate."

According to documents obtained by EPIC through the Freedom of Information Act, the SmarTrip card can record a Metro passenger's time of arrival in the Metro system, the passenger's destination and the amount of time the passenger spends traveling from point to point.

It even records the gate through which a passenger leaves the station.

But transit officials say they have addressed the privacy issues with a policy expected to be passed by the Metro board at its monthly meeting Thursday.

According to the new policy, personal SmarTrip information may be released by Metro only in what are called "limited instances" -- the request must be made by the registered user of the SmarTrip card, there must be a court order, or the request must come from law enforcement when the information is required in the course of an investigation in which time is of the essence.

"Basically, it means nobody can get an individual's SmarTrip data," said Lisa Farbstein, a Metro spokeswoman. "The policy is being established as a way to regulate and safeguard individual data."

If passed, the new policy will take effect Oct. 1.

Since 2000, Metro officials have governed the release of private information through their Public Access to Records Policy. The policy is similar to the federal Freedom of Information Act.