While Cutting Buses for the Poor, KCATA Signed a Secret Deal to Harvest Their Faces for a Private Company's AI
The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority reportedly entered an undisclosed agreement with a private company to collect facial recognition data from transit riders, while simultaneously cutting bus service that low-income residents depend on.
Why this matters: People who rely on public transit usually do not have other options. They cannot opt out of the bus the way they might opt out of an app. That makes this kind of data collection different from a store installing cameras. Riders did not choose a tech product. They chose to get to work. Signing a secret deal to hand their biometric data to a private company, without public notice, is a serious accountability problem. Facial recognition data is permanent. You can change a password. You cannot change your face.
Who should care: General readers · AI governance · Policy
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