Why does the TTC want my driver's licence number?

-
As the Tory transit tax credit draws near, I'm looking into getting a metropass. So I took one of the application forms from the subway car and read it en route to my stop. In addition to a (marked voluntary) section on my existing commuting habits and whether I have a car, there's a section which is not marked voluntary asking for my driver's licence number and my date of birth.

Now, this form is used for student and senior passes so in theory it could be linked to that but you can order multiple passes with one form so that's a no. The idea of a transit authority looking for a licence they are in theory supposed to replace at least in part bugged me so I decided to read the accompanying fine print.

The metropass is paid for with pre-authorised payment with penalties of $25 for having insufficient funds. However it seems the TTC also conducts credit checks:
12... (continues) The customer hereby consents to the TTC conducting credit checks and other financial verification directly and indirectly without further notice to the customer, as it deems fit.
This bugged me a bit but if the payment is after the pass is sent I guess I could see the point. This bit bugged me a lot more:
13. The customer consents to the use and disclosure to third parties by the TTC of information relating to his or her name, phone number, address and TTC metropass serial number for the purposes of verification that the customer is a Metropass Discount Plan holder and for the purpose of the customer being provided with third party value added product information and for the purpose of research for the product evaluation and improvements.
Excuse me? Where's the box I tick where I don't want the TTC having me participate in any business with third parties or have survey companies calling me? Not here. I'm not a tin foil hat privacy nut but I'm disappointed by this - not enough to give up my tax break, yet, but if I'm bombarded by third party crap I'm going to be very annoyed. If the TTC actually did call regarding improvements to metropass I wouldn't actually mind talking to them but I want the right to opt out if I want to and I don't seem to have an option to.

As for the driver's licence number, this seems to be the equivalent in Ontario of the much abused Social Security number in the U.S. Perhaps there's a need for a separate identification system for commercial transactions but I think government ID numbers of this kind should not be in corporate databases.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Your request could not be completed. Please try again in a few minutes."

-
When setting automatic replies (Out of Office) via Exchange 2013 OWA on behalf of another user, the message in the title can be displayed when saving the text. If you look at the System Event Log on the Exchange Server, you may see the following event ID 4: Current user: '" (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(administrator) " on behalf of " (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(User) "' Request for URL ( long URL follows ) failed with the following error: Microsoft.Exchange.Management.ControlPanel.RegionalSettingsNotConfiguredException: We couldn't process the request because the user ' (domain)/(OU)/(OU)/(User) ' hasn't signed in to Outlook Web App and selected a language and a time zone. Ask the user to do this, or, if you are a member of the built-in Organization Management or Help Desk role group, you can use Window PowerShell to select a language and time zone for them. Cancel the Automatic Replies dialog and switch to Settings, which will display a Time Zone selecti
Read more

Chirac gets it right on Lebanon troops?

-
When you have bloggers such as Far and Wide's Steve V and Sicilian Notes' Richard Waghorne , the former a raging critic of Israeli operations in Lebanon and the latter a largely uncritical supporter, agreeing on something you can't help feeling like the unlikely has happened - France is doing something right. They have both criticised France's reluctance to increase UNIFIL troop numbers beyond a fairly token 400, up from their current commitment of 200. France's reluctance is mirrored by the Germans who have offered naval anti-smuggling patrols and perhaps border security, the UK and Denmark who have also offered ships, the Italians who are ready to send 3,000 but not yet and the Irish who have earmarked 200 (which would bring them up to the legal maximum of about 850 overseas at any time due to the Liberia mission) but who are also holding back . The reason is that which I posted on some days ago (albeit having taken a second swing at it) - Resolution 1701 does
Read more

Remote Desktop Connection Manager - a boon for admins

-
I subscribe to a bunch of Microsoft blogs and one of them revealed a gem in the past month.  RDCMan, a tool which allows an admin to group together remote desktops, preset their username/password combos and connect to those groups with a right-click option, has been invaluable in my work lately which involves quickly jumping from server to server or from servers to a group of workstations.  The gorgeous thing about it is not merely a gallery of thumbnails of the connected sessions, but the ability to interact with the thumbnails with sufficiently accurate mouse clicks.  Heartily recommended. Here's the original post: Introducing Remote Desktop Connection Manager 2.2 (You had me at EHLO - the Microsoft Exchange Team blog)
Read more