“Metro today announced an enhanced Web site on which customers can check the balance of their SmarTrip card, monitor any SmartBenefits activity through their employers, and review their usage over time, including on their iPhones and Blackberrys. Users can also report cards online as stolen, lost, cracked or malfunctioning, though they can’t add to their balance from a credit card. The immediate reaction from normally-skeptical Metro riders seemed positive for the long-anticipated move. In April, Metro’s board approved changes to its privacy policy to allow card owners to monitor activity on their cards – pieces of plastic that hold up to $300 in fares at a time, with many employers, including the federal government, reloading the cards with money each month. It’s clear why privacy considerations were important: When I registered my own card with the site and logged on, it became apparent that the timestamped information linked to my SmarTrip was enough to reconstruct nearly all my movements around the region, since I rely almost entirely on Metrobus and Metrorail to get around, and even illustrate habits and routines.”