Travel & Transit Apps · Transit · Structural / no discrete incident
MTA (NYC Subway/Bus)
Headline
OMNY generates trip-level location and timing records tied to whatever payment card or device tapped the reader, and that is a continuous log of a rider's movements through the city.
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
OMNY generates trip-level location and timing records tied to whatever payment card or device tapped the reader, and that is a continuous log of a rider's movements through the city. The MTA drew significant criticism in 2023 when reporting showed its OMNY website let anyone with a payment card's number look up that card's trip history for the prior week, a stalking vector rather than an abstract privacy concern; the MTA then disabled the feature. Transit data is also subject to law enforcement request under standards that vary and are rarely published. A rider cannot opt out and still ride.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
Not applicable in the typical consumer-arbitration sense — the MTA is a New York State public authority; disputes go through the MTA's own complaint process or applicable NY state agencies.
Data sharing
The MTA's OMNY contactless payment system collects trip-level location/timing data; the MTA's own privacy policy has reportedly faced advocacy-group scrutiny (e.g., NYCLU; not re-verified this pass) over data-retention periods and law-enforcement access procedures for transit records — a similar general concern to WMATA's documented practices (Transit, Tolls & Water tab) though not specifically confirmed as an active lawsuit this pass.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. Not verified this pass. If publicly traded: SEC Form 10-K cover page gives the official corporate address; the Secretary of State business-entity search in the state of incorporation gives the registered agent, which must accept service. If private: the state registered agent is usually the only reliable route.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy new.mta.info/privacy-policy | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Terms of service new.mta.info/terms-of-use | Not fetched yet | NO (HTML only) |
| Website No URL recorded | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No HQ state on file, so no state statute applies by headquarters.