Commuters expect Sydney's light rail to get them to their destinations on time, but what about tracking their movements? Passengers on some trams are having their phones pinged and tracked by a private company. It's up to commuters to opt out. And not everyone's happy about it.
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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.