We live in an increasingly surveilled society. Beyond the personal information we willingly broadcast to the world on social media, the habits of our daily lives have become relatively easy to track for those with the right technology – what we bought and where, when we arrived at work, went to the gym, or made a phone call, and what medical condition or legal situation we looked up online.
But knowing the information is being collected doesn’t mean we’re aware of what might be done with it.
This week, however, we have TransLink and the Tyee to thank for a wake-up call, after the online news site highlighted the number of times the transit authority turned over information gleaned from Compass card activity to police.
That’s likely not something that crossed most people’s minds when they registered their Compass cards. Many people won’t be bothered by it.
But it’s part of a disturbing trend of service providers handing over our information without appropriate checks and balances.
Except in cases of immediate public safety, a search warrant application remains the gold standard in assessing whether infringing on a person’s privacy is trumped by the public good.
It’s among the important safeguards that keeps us from living in a police state. We’d like to see that standard applied more vigorously.
Participation in everyday activities – like riding a bus – shouldn’t be signing away our right to privacy.
The compass is a tool that’s meant to help us find our direction. Right now, we don’t like where this one is taking us.
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