Go Cards used for police work

Queensland police are tracking public transport passenger journeys using electronic fare Go Cards to investigate crime.

Police can use Go Card journey information because they have an exemption to the Information Privacy Act.

A TransLink spokesman, Andrew Berkman, said commuters should not be worried about their privacy if they register their Go Cards.

"We've had 46 requests in the past 12 months," Mr Berkman told ABC Radio.

"Probably less than one a week, and that's against 75 million trips taken on Go Cards, it's a fairly low percentage there."

He said most of the police requests to use the Go Card records were to help find missing people or locate lost or stolen cards.

Chief superintendent, Mike Condon, said strict circumstances govern police access to the data.

"At the end of the day the community expects the police to carry out their functions and investigate serious crimes using whatever methodology available to bring those people to justice," he told ABC Radio.

He would not say if criminals had been caught as a result of police monitoring Go Card journeys.

Supt Condon denied that witnesses of crime tracked down through their fare transactions could be forced to give evidence in court. "No, the witness would not be compelled to, under those circumstances," he said.

Australian Council for Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman told AAP he's angry commuters were not told police would have access to Go Card data when the system was introduced.

"People identified by the Go Card data can be forced by police by subpoena or ... the CMC to become witnesses against their will," he said. "Many people might not want to run the risk of being hunted down by associates of an accused ... in that situation they just want to be able to choose whether they become witnesses."

Mr O'Gorman said he would de-register his Go Card and urged others to do the same.

"It's one government department in bed with another, there's no oversight by a privacy commissioner because we don't have one," he said. "We have a very weak Privacy Act that sets out privacy principles but no one to enforce it.

"We are sleep-walking in a surveillance society."

A spokesman for Perth Transport Authority said WA police had access on request to the state's electronic fare SmartRider system to investigate crimes.

He said the system had operated for four years but there were no records kept on how many police requests had been made.

The Myki electronic ticket system in Victoria also gives police access to information "where an authorised senior police officer certifies that the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the enforcement of the criminal law".

There have been four police requests for information since the Myki system was introduced.

Comment is being sought from the Queensland transport minister.

• Bookmark this page
• Share this article
  •  
  • facebook
  • slashdot
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • stumbleupon
  • linkedin
  • twitter
• Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
• Follow Computerworld on twitter

• Share
  Share this article

  •  google+
  • facebookfacebook
  • slashdotslashdot
  • diggdigg
  • RedditReddit
  • stumbleuponstumbleupon
  • linkedinlinkedin
  • twittertwitter
• print
• email
• Bookmark