S.T.O.P. Reveals DOE, MTA Track Student OMNY Cards, Condemns ‘Student Dragnet’

The civil rights group worked with public school parents to prove that students’ OMNY cards were being tracked across the city.

View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Reveals DOE, MTA Track Student OMNY Cards, Condemns ‘Student Dragnet’   (New York, NY 2/13/2025) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, condemned the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Department of Education for tracking the locations of the hundreds of thousands of New York City school children who receive OMNY cards, creating what it calls a “student dragnet.” Reported by Gothamist's newsletter On The Way, S.T.O.P. worked with public school parents to prove that students’ OMNY cards were being tracked across the city. According to a DOE official, students’ could lose travel benefits unless they begin and end their day near their home address, meaning that not only is every student swipe tracked, but students might lose their travel pass simply having a sleepover with friends, spending the night with a relative, or if their family moves.  SEE: Gothamist – On The Way (Link live tomorrow, 2/14) https://gothamist.com/tags/on-the-way DOE Email To Parent https://web.tresorit.com/l/qW301#crFzOA8bboLiBIu3rMU-AA “OMNY’s student dragnet is putting school kids on the express train to deportation,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “It’s an appalling betrayal that transit and school officials would turn bus passes into tracking devices. 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. We cannot accept that more tracking is the price of every new piece of transit technology. When so many New Yorkers lack access to reliable transportation, the MTA should be focused on getting more reliable train and bus service, not mass surveillance.” “As OMNY cards become a mainstream method to public transportation access, and many public-school students receive their free OMNY cards to commute around the city, we must recognize the risks this new system presents,” said New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez. “These OMNY cards are directly associated with the students and their uses can be tracked in real time. This poses an unacceptable privacy risk to OMNY users, including students, and their families. I’m proud to introduce this OMNY data privacy bill that will restrict the MTA and its vendors from sharing OMNY card data. We need to provide affordable and accessible transportation to all New Yorkers, but we cannot do so at the cost of violating privacy rights and creating a dragnet that allows for unregulated mass surveillance.”   The news comes as the civil rights group continues to fight for passage of legislation that would protect transit data from law enforcement.  The OMNY Privacy Act would block the MTA from sharing OMNY users’ information with law enforcement without a warrant, blocking the sort of routine sharing that is possible today. And the Modernize the PPPL Act would protect data held by New York State agencies more broadly, including the MTA, banning warrantless sharing with law enforcement.   SEE: New York State Senate – OMNY Privacy Act https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6142 New York State Senate - Modernize the PPPL Act https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S4044 The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color. --END-- Copyright © 2021 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.