If you park on most streets in Center City, Philadelphia, you have to enter your license plate and location into a machine to avoid a ticket. Where does that information go? What is it used for? Is it combined with other databases and then sold to data brokers?
Hall Monitor sent its consumer reporter, Lance Haver, to the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) Board Meeting to ask. The Board directed Lance to speak with PPA’s general counsel, who said he didn’t know, but if Hall Monitor sent questions, he would try to get answers.
It may seem, with all the other issues facing consumers, not that important. Does PPA, a governmental authority, force people to provide private information about themselves that the government or corporations can use? For some people concerned about the government’s ever-increasing authoritarian direction, it is.
Why should anyone who wants to use a public thoroughfare and abide by parking laws be required to tell anyone where they parked, for how long, and what car they were driving?
Flowbird, a French Company, makes the machines used to pay for parking. At this point, PPA was unable to state if Flowbird was collecting the data. If it was — the data on where you park, for how long, and the car you are driving — will be shared with Flowbird’s other companies according to Flowbird’s privacy statement:
2. DISCLOSURE of your information
We may disclose some or all of the data we collect from you when you download the App or use the Site and/or the Services to the following third parties:
- Other members of our group of companies.
- Third parties only to the extent to ensure the usability of our services and within the scope of the contract we have with you.
Your personal data will therefore not be passed to any further third parties without your explicit permission, unless this is necessary to provide the service or complete the contract. FLOWBIRD is legally obliged to cooperate with law enforcement agencies if these request information. Please consider that we will only transmit this information within the scope of our statutory duty of disclosure or if we are obliged to disclose this data by a court judgment.
If the information entered into the machine is controlled by the company, Park Mobile, retained by PPA to offer a way to pay for parking without using the Flowbird machine, there are almost no privacy protections. In Philadelphia, using Park Mobile is not currently required, but PPA doesn’t say whether Park Mobile has access to the information entered into the machine it connects to.
Park Mobile’s privacy statement offers even less protection than Flowbird’s.
From the company’s privacy policy:
When you use ParkMobile to make a parking transaction, we collect data related to the transaction, such as the parking facility, date and time of arrival and departure, services purchased, location data, and other transactional data. When you use a website, mobile application, or other internet service, certain internet and electronic network activity data is created and logged automatically. This is also true when you use ParkMobile. Here are some of the types of data we collect:
- Internet or other electronic network activity data, such as information about your interactions with our Services. This includes information about the content you view, the time you spend viewing the content, and the features you access on the Services;
- Identifiers, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device identifiers (including the manufacturer and model), and Media Access Control (MAC) address;
- Geolocation data, such as where you are located when you use our Services; and
- Standard server log data, such as your application version number, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system, browser type and version, and the date and time of your visit.
- We, along with our partners, use various technologies to collect and store data when you use our Services, and this may include using cookies or similar technologies to identify your browser or device. We also use these technologies to collect and store data when you interact with services from our partners, such as advertising services.
In PPA’s FAQ’s the issue of who collects the data is not addressed.
There is no reason for any person, legally parking on the public streets of Philadelphia, to be required to provide private information to any corporation or the PPA itself. As the Pa. Supreme Court has ruled, inherent in Pa.’s Constitution, is the right to privacy and the right to be left alone. The PPA should not be allowed to violate that basic right by collecting information about where one’s car is parked and for how long. No one needs a reason to be left alone; it is a constitutional right.
Our reporters sit through hours of city council meetings, dig through piles of documents, and ask tough questions other media overlook. Because we’re committed to addressing Philadelphia’s poverty crisis — and challenging those who sustain it. If you think this work is important too, please support our journalism.
We’re counting on readers like you.
