00:00When a Sydney man hopped aboard the light rail early one morning, he noticed a sign
00:07on the inside of the door. Now he doesn't catch trams.
00:13Indra Arifan scanned the QR code on the poster, and found out the light rail was collecting
00:17data from his phone on his morning commute.
00:20It says that if you want to opt out, you go to this website, and that was a bit weird
00:28for me.
00:29This web page tells passengers Wi-Fi sensors on trams are gathering their MAC addresses,
00:33the 12-digit identifier assigned to devices like phones and tablets.
00:37They're collected by Flowly, a private company based in La Reunion, a French island in the
00:42Indian Ocean.
00:44The light rail's private operator Transdev says the MAC addresses are encrypted, with
00:48no way to link the address to a person.
00:50But a cyber security expert isn't convinced.
00:54They've given what I think is an excessively strong assurance that everything will be OK,
00:59you can't be identified. The reality is that under certain circumstances you can be identified.
01:05He says a MAC address alone can't identify people, but cross-referencing it with other
01:09data can.
01:11Transdev says the data will be stored in NSW and will help improve the service and reduce
01:16fare evasion.
01:17If you are really trying to do that, I'm sure there are ways that you could get most of
01:22what you need in a lot less intrusive way.
01:26Other forms of public transport in NSW like trains and buses aren't using Flowly to monitor
01:30passenger movements by pinging their phones.
01:33Instead a Transport for NSW spokesperson told us they rely on smart ticketing systems and
01:37opal cards to track travel patterns using tap-on, tap-off data.
01:42Passengers can opt out but only within three hours via a form, or by switching Wi-Fi off
01:47before they get on.
01:49Transdev said the trial was publicised on the Transport for NSW news pages, with posters
01:53on all seven trams with active sensors.
01:56I don't think that's enough. They should have put the signs on the light rail stops before
02:02people actually get on. I'm a little bit scared to use light rail nowadays.
02:08For Indra, opting out of data collection means opting for the Metro instead.
Comments