Brent Begin reports:
The swipe of a thin card allows Bay Area commuters to pay for public transportation across the region, but it also allows the transit agencies to track where the riders travel. Five major transportation agencies — Muni, BART, AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit and Caltrain — already accept the Clipper card as a form of payment. Two more — SamTrans and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority — are coming aboard soon. Those seven agencies represent 90 percent of Bay Area transit riders.
As the use of the Clipper card increases, what many people may be unaware of is that technology in the card allows local transit agencies to collect data on a passenger’s whereabouts and travel habits from a chip in each card.
Read more on the San Francisco Examiner.