Imagine you are on a scooter or in the back of an Uber or Lyft, riding to your next appointment. You arrive at your destination, check your phone, and realize the city’s been watching. Not only were you charged twice the normal rate for taking an unapproved shortcut, but now there’s a government record of your trip.
Why is the city tracking your whereabouts? And who has access to that information? What happens if those records fall into the wrong hands? Mobility Data Specification (MDS), a tool created and promoted by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), allows local governments to do just this. Today, it is used for bikes and scooters, but this scenario could soon become a reality for all modes of transportation, jeopardizing the privacy of millions of travelers just like you.
A new technology called MDS makes it easy for local governments to track people’s personal movements through cities. In the wrong hands, the information collected by MDS poses grave privacy and safety risks. Learn more about MDS, how it impacts you, and what you can do to stop it.
We are a group of concerned citizens, privacy and civil liberties advocates, and transportation innovators committed to making our streets safer and more manageable while protecting rider privacy.
Last spring, as hospitals filled up and countless people were forced into isolation due to COVID-19, a troubling “data gap” emerged among the Bay Area’s LGBTQ+ community. In efforts to understand whether the deadly virus was disproportionately impacting LGBTQ+ people — who experience… Read More
Let’s talk about data privacy. Before you turn the page or click on a different story, let us tell you why two pastors would take the time to write about a topic that, on its surface, might seem unrelated to ministry. This Thursday, January 28… Read More
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Los Angeles over a program that tracks dockless electric scooters and bikes in real time, potentially allowing the government — or anyone with access to the data — to trace a rider’s entire trip. Read More
A Washington, D.C., neighborhood advocacy group passed a resolution this week opposing the city’s adoption of a data-sharing process that would allow it to track the location of ride-hailing vehicles, dockless e-scooters, bicycles and mopeds in near-real time. Read More
"*" indicates required fields
The solutions we need to protect rider privacy and safety.
