ParkRTC App Will Collect a Lot of Personal Information About Visitors to Reston Town Center

RESTON, VA — Information on customers is an extremely valuable commodity in today's digital age, and Reston Town Center intends to collect a lot through the paid parking app ParkRTC that will launch next week.

The new app, which goes live Sept. 12, marks the end of free parking at Reston Town Center, something that has made locals mad enough. But privacy concerns also have become a major issue to those objecting to the change, and the sheer amount of information RTC will be collecting by its own admission may give opponents some ammunition.

Not surprisingly, the app will log details such as your name, payment information and your license plate number as would seem necessary on a basic level to provide such a parking service. But the information RTC developer Boston Properties will be collecting through the app will go far beyond that.

In its "privacy policy" statement in the app itself, RTC says it will use technology to automatically collect information like website details. What does that mean? As the policy states: "We may also collect information about the parts of our application or website you use or third party websites you visit when you leave our website. We may work with third parties who collect information about you when you use our apps or website."

In addition, RTC will be monitoring how you use the app, including accessing location data and other communication data. The app will also collect information on your mobile device, like your device ID, the privacy policy states.

The app may also collect information on your IP address, your operating system, mobile network information, the telephone number of the device and even what browser you use.

The app does give you the option to choose whether or not to share personal information, although it says that if you choose not to share, "some services may be more difficult or impossible to use."

How does RTC plan to use this information? Much of it will be to provide an effective service, and create opportunities to improve on it in the future such as by aggregating data to examine usage trends, RTC says. But third parties may be able to access personal information as well.

"We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide in the following ways," the privacy policy states. "We share information with parking and transit providers in order for you to use their parking and transit services and to support their management and enforcement services. We share information with contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our business."

The information will also be supplied to "our subsidiaries and affiliates," and "for any other purpose we disclose when you provide the information."