Michael Neibauer reports:
Privacy advocates have sounded the alarm about the District government’s effort to issue a single, traceable identification card to residents, urging the D.C. Council to adopt legislation that protects the privacy of all users.
The DC One Card has been adopted by the Fenty administration as a single credential for use as a school and government employee ID, as a SmarTrip card for Metro, as a library card and as a recreational facility access card. It is designed to be used by any District government agency, though only a handful have signed on so far.
[…]
The Office of the Chief Technology Officer is bound by a privacy policy that limits data collection to a minimum and bars the agency from tracking users, Willey said. But other government entities, he added, are not bound by OCTO’s privacy policy — in fact, an agency that uses the One Card is under no obligation to have a privacy policy at all.
And that might be the problem, Cheh said after Friday’s hearing. OCTO has oversight of the One Card initiative by default because it created the technology, she said, but there is no office setting governmentwide standards.
Read more in the Washington Examiner.