‘It’s an appalling betrayal’: Is the MTA tracking thousands of New York City schoolchildren through their metro cards?
The New York City Department of Education is tracking the locations of schoolchildren through their transit cards with help from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, alleges one New York-based digital privacy advocacy group.
Schools around the city began distributing Student OMNY passes in 2024, giving students four free rides per day on the Subway and buses throughout the school year. The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) claims it has proof that schools are collecting location data from these cards to flag misuse, potentially putting kids and their families in harm’s way.
In a news release, the organization referenced a redacted email from a Department of Education employee to one New York City parent sent on Feb. 6, which intimates the agency is collecting location data from OMNY cards.
“The stipulations are that the card can be used up to 4 times each day,” the email reads. “But they expect the origin to be near the home address, the second stop to be near the school, and the final stop of the day to be near the home address.”
The student’s school notified the parent about suspicious OMNY card use activity, said S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. This system would only be feasible, he added, if student locations are tracked on an automated, agency-wide basis. S.T.O.P. has not heard similar concerns from any other parents.
“It’s an appalling betrayal that transit and school officials would turn bus passes into tracking devices,” Cahn said. “If we allow students’ movements to be tracked over time, it puts them and their families at risk, creating a massive database where many of New York’s most vulnerable families live.”
The MTA denies collecting the identities of any students, saying data in the MTA’s system is linked to schools rather than individual children.
“In the relatively few situations where student passes are being used improperly, as we’ve said repeatedly those cards will be deactivated,” said MTA Chief Customer Officer Shanifah Rieara in a statement. “We defer to NYC Public Schools to resolve those matters with any students involved.”
Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle confirmed this setup in an email.
“Although student OMNY cards are tied to individual students, this information lives exclusively with New York City Public Schools, and the MTA has no access to this data,” Lyle wrote.
The Department of Education’s webpage about the cards does not include any information about location tracking.
Cahn says keeping the data in the public school system is still a concern.
“Even if it’s DOE that is doing the spying, MTA also bears responsibility for making this sort of surveillance possible. They are the ones that promised that OMNY wouldn’t mean degrading our privacy,” he said, referencing the MTA’s broader tap-to-pay system. “It’s clear that’s a lie.”
Misuse of Student OMNY cards first came under fire in the fall after the New York Post published a series of articles about students hawking the passes on Facebook Marketplace and TikTok for hundreds of dollars.
Location tracking theoretically prevents these abuses. However, Cahn said it also allows the government to follow the movements of students, particularly noncitizens: “OMNY’s student dragnet is putting school kids on the express train to deportation.”
The Department of Education does not track the immigration status of students or their families.
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