Popular transit payment system linked to Palantir could give ICE access to rider data

Civil rights and immigrant advocates are warning that data from public transit payment systems could be passed on to law enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As Whitney Curry Wimbish explains in The American Prospect, multiple transit systems around the country have installed tap-to-pay fare systems operated by Cubic Corporation, a defense contractor. "Cubic executives—all of whom have a background at major weapons manufacturers—signed a partnership late last year with Palantir, the artificial intelligence company that built ImmigrationOS for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to help federal agents hunt immigrants."

The Cubic technology captures credit card, phone and fare card information in a cloud database that critics worry could be shared with ICE. "Cubic says its analytics come with a 'de-identification' of sensitive and personally identifiable information, turning it 'into an analytics ready dataset that can be securely consumed for research, monetization schemes, and other internal and external purposes' and that its offerings include 'personalized actionable information' sent directly to riders’ phones."