(New York, NY, 7/7/2023) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, revealed the MTA contracts with the artificial intelligence surveillance firm Awaait to monitor subway fare evasion. The previously unreported contract, which S.T.O.P. obtained under New Yorkâs Freedom of Information Law, uses the MTAâs sprawling network of cameras and Awaaitâs AI software to measure alleged fare evasion across the transit system. The civil rights group said that the contract raised crucial privacy and bias questions, noting that it feared that the technology would promote further policing of mass transit.
âAI canât fix the unaffordability of transit, but it can creep people out,â said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. âWe know the reasons why New Yorkers ride without paying: poverty, lost MetroCardâs, and limits on school transit passes. This AI will just become a pretext for policing stations even more aggressively. But no matter how much surveillance we install, we canât get people to pay for the train if they canât afford it. And this raises real concerns about how the MTA is tracking New Yorkers and where that data is kept.â
The civil rights group previously criticized the MTAâs plans to spend millions of dollars to install surveillance cameras in every single subway car. At the time, the group calle the measure wasteful âsurveillance theater.â
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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