Tracking DC Drivers
The District of Columbia’s Department of Motor Vehicles plans to install computer chips in drivers licenses that could allow the city to track persons throughout the region’s transit system. A DMV official acknowledged that the SmarTrip chip provides “Metro and the government with a system to follow users...” but stated that the DMV “has no intention to track [a] person’s movements on the Metro system.”

The Chairman of the City Council described the chips as “yet another opportunity to reduce vehicular traffic in the downtown area.” An official with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) stated that the city is “setting up an infrastructure where the government can track you all the time.”