EZ Pass and the fast lane ....

[Christian Wolff]

> From: Dave Emery <die at dieconsulting.com>
> To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
> Subject: EZ Pass and the fast lane ....
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i
> Sender: owner-cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
> 
 > [...]
 >
> 	Perhaps someone more paranoid (or subversive) than I am will
> follow up and actually build such a monitor and report whether there
> are any interogations at OTHER than the expected places...

Here in california, the FasTrak transponders (bridge toll, carpool lane) 
are put to a "seconday use". 511.org has set up transponder antennas at 
certain points on the freeways, always one each pointing at each lane, 
to calculate average travel times. They say they "scramble" the 
ID-Number and don't store it for long.

Here's my research mail:

--

Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 16:35:31 -0700
From: "511" <511 at mtc.ca.gov>
To: <scarabaeus at scarabaeus.org>
Subject: Re: new antennas on 101

Thanks for your inquiry.

The antennas are part of the 511 Traveler Information system.  We use
them to calculate speeds on Bay Area freeways so that we can provide
up-to-the-minute driving times from point A to point B on our 511 phone
and web systems.  It also allows us to provide how fast traffic is
moving in conjunction with incidents.  For example, we can say there is
an accident at University Ave in Berkeley and traffic is moving between
15 and 30mph.

The technology does use FasTrakTM transponders.  The antennas read the
transponder, scramble the number, and then send the scrambled number to
our system to calculate the driving times and speeds.  At the end of the
day we throw away the scrambled numbers and encryption codes so that
there is no way for anyone to come back to us in the future and ask for
numbers to track individuals.  If FasTrakTM customers are still
uncomfortable with our set-up, we have provided every FasTrakTM customer
with a bag that prevents the transponder from being read by our
antennas.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
Thanks.

 >>> Christian Wolff <scarabaeus at scarabaeus.org> 04/20/04 02:24PM >>>
Hi,

i noticed new antennas, one each pointing at each lane, on freeway 101
in the bay area. They are mounted to existing sign bridges at the cesar
chavez exit, near SFO and in palo alto (as far as i spotted them).

I suppose they are some kind of RFID antenna, e.g from the FasTrak
system. If so, what is their purpose? To keep track of movements of
FasTrak customers? A general traffic pattern survey?

And, if it's not FasTrak, is this a field test for another RFID device,
maybe even mandatory, as mentioned here?:
"Automotive RFID Gets Rolling"
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/866/1/1/

I have already contacted the FasTrak customer service, but they just
referred me to you.

Thank you in advance for your response.

     Sincerely,
       Christian Wolff,
       San Francisco.


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