Brisbane (QLD) police are using the data from TransLink’s Go Card to track criminal suspects and potential witnesses. According to the Brisbane Times, police have requested Go Card data 46 times. In a statement, a TransLink spokesman said, “This is the same procedure that police and other law enforcement agencies follow to gain credit card or banking information, driver’s license data or any other detail which may help confirm a person’s identity or movements.”
Data is only available when customers register the card in case it is lost or stolen; privacy experts are encouraging commuters to remove personal information. “We warned when the Go Cards were introduced that the electronic records could be used for various forms of surveillance and we were pooh-poohed and told that we were being unnecessarily concerned,” said Terry O’Gorman, president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties. “In the light of this I’d urge people who are concerned about their privacy to take the de-identification route so that agents of the state can’t willy-nilly access information on their travel patterns.” In related story, The Age reports that Victoria police are using customer data from the myki card to support their investigations. “We’re all in a digital age. Credit cards have microchips in them and we all use mobile phones, Monash University professor Graham Currie told The Age. “So I’m not too sure myki is bad because it is following this trend. There are positive sides to this as well as the negative ones.” Link to full story in Brisbane Times.
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Perhaps its time that people startd reading the terms and conditions of use instead of acting shocked when something to which they have agreed actually happens.
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