A Functioning Beta Solution to the Challenge of Opening Transit Payment System Transaction Data
David Ory (Metropolitan Transportation Commission), Stephen, Granger-Bevan (Formerly of Metropolitan Transportation Commission)

TL;DR
This paper presents a privacy-preserving anonymization scheme for transit fare transaction data from the San Francisco Bay Area's Clipper system, aiming to balance data utility with customer privacy.
Contribution
The paper introduces a novel anonymizing scheme tailored for transit transaction data that addresses privacy concerns while maintaining data usability.
Findings
Scheme effectively anonymizes transit data
Balances privacy protection with data utility
Invites community feedback on approach
Abstract
The deployment of smart-card-based public transit fare payment systems provides government the opportunity to create a valuable derivative data product. Companies such as Urban Engines have demonstrated an ability to add value to the data derived from transit fare transactions. The challenge for the public sector is to, for the societal good, leverage private sector interest by giving access to useful fare transaction data in a manner that protects customer privacy. This challenge is particularly acute in California, where privacy laws make sharing data in a manner that supports the public interest difficult. This paper presents the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (MTC's) proposed solution to the problem. MTC operates the Clipper(r) transit fare payment system for the San Francisco Bay Area. In an effort to share usable data that protects customer privacy, MTC developed an…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPrivacy, Security, and Data Protection · Privacy-Preserving Technologies in Data · Transportation and Mobility Innovations
