Metrolinx and the Ontario Government announced on August 1, 2019 that they have a plan to sell the naming rights to five GO Stations to potential sponsors. In return, those sponsors will get a collection of juicy benefits, including:

· Opportunities to develop shared learning opportunities with access to an engaged customer base for research.

· Potential for customer insight and data exchange, for this partnership and more broadly to support partner objectives.

· Potential to share aggregated and anonymized GO Transit ridership data (excluding PRESTO PII data) for research collaboration and customer mapping research.

Please click here for a complete breakdown of the sponsorship package.

The selling of GO Station naming rights has been played out in the media as being primarily a “privacy” issue. It is not. It is a “civic” issue.

There are many tools that currently exist whose purpose is to anonymize data and safeguard the public. Tools like the Privacy by Design protocol or the European GDPR were created specifically to ensure that a person’s privacy is always a priority.

Thanks to these tools hundreds of thousands of Open Data sets have been released — for free — to the public and have provided immeasurable economic and societal value to nations around the World.

Bryan Smith, CEO of ThinkData Works and Vice-Chair to the Ontario Government Digital and Data Task Force feels strongly about the matter. “Releasing Ridership Data as Open Data would be far more valuable than any revenue made from selling it privately,” he says. “Opening that data would widen the pool and scope of problem-solvers.”

And this has been proven time and time again. Even just recently, students in a Ryerson Master’s Urban Planning class were asked “If you had all the money in the World, what could you do with Open Data?” One of the teams had an idea called The First and Last Stretch: To get you there when you are almost there.

Their idea was to use GO Transit Ridership Data (if it were to become available) to create a business that would help commuters with the final stretch of their journey. You can see their pitch below.

Understanding the Value of Data

Bryan Smith co-founded ThinkData Works with a singular vision to make Data and Open Data more accessible. His company has helped to unlock the value in data for enterprise organizations and governments across North America and Europe. “Think of data as a resource, it is not just renewable but it is also self-generating. The more we use, the more we get,” says Smith. “Putting a dollar value on data is like trying to measure the universe - it is bigger than we can fathom and expanding by the second.”

While it is very difficult to put a price on data, it is not impossible. For example, Canada Post charges anywhere between $10,000 - $50,000 for a license that will give you access to Postal Code data.

That is quite a bit of money, especially since the Postal Code data is very basic in nature. There is no story behind it. Nothing to mine. Nothing that will drive a conclusion or influence a strategy. Postal Code data is a base that helps give context and meaning to other data sets.

NOTE: The Canadian Open Data Community has lobbied for years to get the government to publish Postal Codes as Open Data sets, but to no avail. Worst yet, Canada Post has even sued members from the community who have tried to crowdsource Postal Codes.

The latest Metrolinx Business Plan states that there were 76.2-million rides on their network in 2018–2019. It is fair to assume sponsors will not only get basic data like how many rides there were on any given day, but also anonymized granular data points that will tell the “story” of a Metrolinx Transit Rider.

Where do these riders live (approximately)? Where are they going (approximately)? When did they tap-in? When did they tap-out? Which terminals in the stations do they typically use? How much money do they spend on transit? How much time do they spend commuting? Who knows, Metrolinx could also give sponsors real-time Ridership Data.

Take all and stack-on census data PLUS the independent research Metrolinx does on its riders PLUS the data sponsors collect themselves, and all of a sudden you have a complete profile of GO Transit Riders.

And this is where things get tricky.

In and of itself, this is not a bad thing (as long as the aforementioned privacy measures are taken). As matter of fact, it would be ideal if everyone had the same access to Ridership Data as these “would-be” sponsors will get.

Can you imagine what academics, startups, Not-For-Profits, civic groups, research institutes, and other private companies could do if they also had access to this data? Heck, a couple of students only needed a couple of hours to conceive an idea that would provide a great solution to a very real problem!

Instead, Metrolinx and the Ontario Government have chosen to shackle this data to just a handful of entities and turn it into a revenue stream.

Take a moment and let that sink-in. Our government has chosen to treat taxpayers the same way Facebook and Google treats their users: We are the product.

However, there is something else about this announcement that is even more troubling.

Metrolinx is directly ignoring the Ontario Government Open Data Directive, (which it recognizes on their website) and the Ontario Government is ignoring its own value system that states the release of Open Data can be used to “increase transparency and accountability.”

In other words, Metrolinx and the Ontario Government have chosen to sell transparency and accountability to the highest bidder for pennies on the dollar.

Moving Backwards

On October 9, 2018, Gil Meslin (an urban planner and social scientist) asked Metrolinx when were they going to release their inventory of Open Data sets. The Metrolinx response stated that the Data Inventory List had been compiled and that a “pilot project with priority data sets will be uploaded in the next couple of months.”

The Data Inventory is nowhere to be found. All that can be found is this page, and there is nothing there.

This lack of action is startling. Ontario was an international pioneer when it was chosen as an inaugural member for the Open Government Partnership sub-national pilot program; Ontario adopted both the International Open Data Charter and Open Government License; And Ontario has even produced and published YouTube videos on Open Data.

It now appears Metrolinx and the Ontario Government have changed their tune and no longer believe in Open Data.

If you feel strongly about this issue and want to let Metrolinx and the Ontario Government know that you would rather have GO Transit Ridership Data be published as Open Data, then please sign this petition.