With the Compass Card bringing in a new digital means of paying for transit fares, how much personal data about passengers will TransLink have?
The new system requires riders to scan their Compass Cards both when boarding and leaving transit. According to Jude Crasta, AMS VP external, the personal details that TransLink has access to are limited.
“TransLink does not get to see all of the details linking to the person… what they get is a truncated student ID, or TSID,” said Crasta.
Chris Bryan, TransLink Media Advisor, said in an emailed statement that it is 4 digits of a student’s student ID that will be shared with TransLink, which “allows Fare Inspectors, who carry hand-held units, to compare those digits with the person’s student ID.”
Unless a student chooses to provide their name, TransLink does not have access to students’ names or other identifiable details. According to Crasta, what UBC has done to keep track of who has which Compass Card is assign each student a Global Unique ID (GUID).
“TransLink will be able to link the information from the use of your Compass Card to that unique identifier, the GUID, it’ll not be able to basically put it to you,” said Crasta. “So all they get in terms of movements is how that GUID itself is moving in the system and how much that GUID entity is using the system.”
If a student should borrow a Compass Card from another student the TSID will allow transit police to recognize that the card that student is carrying is not their own.
“Fare Inspectors carry hand held units which scan people’s Compass Cards. It will provide four consecutive digits of the carrier’s student number, in random position. Students who are enrolled in the U-Pass BC Compass program must always carry their student ID so Fare Inspectors can verify they are the card holder,” wrote Bryan.
Crasta said that this isn’t really a change from the way passengers have been kept track of with the old U-Pass system.
“One of the key areas where they do the checking would be like the normal transit police that they do otherwise…. even with the old paper U-Passes, you are required to carry your student card with you, same thing with a Compass Card,” said Crasta. “Borrowing the card itself, it’s not really allowed, but that’s the main area where they’d be able to check it out.”
According to TransLink, the company submitted a Privacy Impact Assessment to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia for review and comment.