BOX 5.2
New York City Transit Metrocard

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority uses a magnetic-stripe fare card called a Metrocard. The Metrocard is accepted on all New York City buses and subway trains. A magnetic stripe on the card holds the stored value information; however, the same information is recorded on a central computer system. Thus, although the card appears to be an anonymous-bearer instrument, transactions charged to a particular card are logged. While this feature is primarily an antifraud device, it has in fact been used by police agencies to verify suspects’ movements. Furthermore, since cards may be purchased by credit card, the potential exists to track an individual even without possession of the individual’s physical card.

The privacy implications of this system have been known for some time. A 1997 study¹ on multipurpose fare media not only discussed the privacy issue but also found that it was indeed a major concern of consumers. Fare cards have a modest amount of storage and no computational ability. Because they are copyable, there is a need for consultation with the central site.

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¹Transit Cooperative Research Program Research Results Digest, June 1997, available online at < http://gulliver.trb.org/publications/tcrp/tcrp_rrd_16.pdf>.