I have seen a great deal in the news lately about security and privacy issues with smart cards and I am concerned about the security of my personal information. How will this be addressed?
There will be no personal information stored on the smart chip. The chip will simply be a number in the transit system that either has the U-PASS activated or not. The UW will send files to the transit agency database which identifies which smart cards are active cards. These files will have the serial number of the active smart chip cards but will contain no names or numbers that identify particular individuals. UW Commuter Services will be the office that maintains the information on which cardholders have valid U-PASSs. This information will be kept in accordance with the UW privacy policy (UW Electronic Information Privacy Policy on Personally Identifiable Information, http://www.washington.edu/computing/rules/privacypolicy.html).
No personal information will be stored on the smart chip. The chip contains a number with instructions to activate or deactivate U-PASS membership. The UW sends files that contain these numbers to the region’s ORCA system. No names or UW ID numbers are included in the files. Limited trip data is also stored on the chip for the purpose of processing transit transactions or payment, but it is not associated with names or UW ID numbers. Commuter Services will be the only office with information about who has a valid U-PASS, and we will keep this information private in accordance with the UW Electronic Information Privacy Policy on Personally Identifiable Information. Commuter Services will not have access to individually-identifiable trip data from the ORCA system.
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