Privacy experts concerned with locally-accessible parking app (update)

By Aastha Shetty

Privacy experts say a parking app used in Waterloo Region seems unusually open to sharing personal data with other countries.

The big concern is the way the app stores personal data.

Currently, the Passport Parking app's privacy policy leaves the door open to share data with other countries who may not have strict privacy laws or protections.

Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario, says the Passport Parking app's privacy policy is currently too invasive.

“It's completely unacceptable because they're not getting anyone's consent to use their information, which they have to give for parking purposes. And then, they're not authorised to use it for other secondary uses like marketing. If they intend to do that then they have to obtain consent from the individuals involved and they're obviously not doing that. It makes no sense. Why would any information collected via the parking app be shared with other third parties and potentially other countries? It makes no sense. There is no reason for it.”

She says the data collected should only be used to obtain information for parking, and whether it was done lawfully.

“If they've extended beyond and they didn't pay, you need to contact the individuals to obtain additional payment — that's it. That's the only context in which the personal information collecting should be used. No other information should be used whatsoever.”

The Parking Passport app has given 570 NEWS the following statement:

“Similar to other companies who provide apps to end users, Passport collects basic account-level information. This information is only collected when voluntarily submitted by users who engage in Passport's parking services. Any data Passport collects remains private except for anonymized or operationally necessary data that is shared with the city.

“Passport is committed to complying to all applicable laws and regulations concerning privacy and data protection in the US and Canada. For further information about Passport’s privacy policy, please refer to the company’s Data Principles.”

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