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Maryland Public Buses Record Passengers' Conversations (washingtonpost.com)
mi writes: You may not have heard of it yet, but Maryland Transit Administration began recording passengers' conversations in 2012 — on its own initiative. Legislative efforts to put an end to the practice failed four times since then — but some State Senators keep trying "What [the MTA] is doing is a mass surveillance [...] I can make an argument to tape everybody, everywhere, everywhere they walk, everywhere they talk, and you can make the excuse for homeland security." If we had competing public transport companies, one could've switched to a privacy-respecting competitor. Alas, MTA holds a monopoly and legislation is the only recourse.
If we had competing public transport companies, one could've switched to a privacy-respecting competitor.
It isn't easy to compete with an integrated and affordable mass transit system on this scale. Not to mention the small problem of finding a competitor who isn't keeping an eye on his own drivers and passengers.
MTA Maryland operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. There are 80 bus lines serving Baltimore's public transportation needs, along with other services that include the Light Rail, Metro Subway, and MARC Train. With nearly half the population of Baltimore residents lacking access to a car, the MTA is an important part of the regional transit picture. The system has many connections to other transit agencies of Central Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and south-central Pennsylvania (Hanover, Harrisburg, and York): WMATA, Charm City Circulator, Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland, Annapolis Transit, Rabbit Transit, Ride-On, and TransIT.
Daily ridership: 392,831 weekday average
Maryland Transit Administration
Maryland law requires two-party consent to record a conversation. This BS would get yourself jailed if you did it yourself.
Everyone, please RTFA, this is blown out of all proportion. It's a recording device next to the operator's seat (so any conversation it records would not be that private, it would be hearable by the bus operator), and it is to be activated by the bus operator. It's not like each seat has a hidden microphone to record private conversations. Has anyone who posts on slashdot ridden on a bus? Do you know how much noise they make?
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