EZ Pass and the fast lane ....

[Jerrold Leichter]

| > another purpose -- preserving the privacy of drivers by using more
| > complicated protocols. However, as the benefit of such systems is to
| > people who are unlikely to have much voice in the construction of the
| > system, and who are also unlikely to be willing to pay more money to
| > gain privacy, I think the implementation of such tags is unlikely.
|
| I think it would be easier to provide drivers with a simpler method of
| turning off their transponder. Recently ordered FasTrak tokens come with a
| mylar bag for this purpose, which is too unwieldy. A switch, however,
| might be enough.
|
| This would not prevent an adversary from recording the IDs of cars that
| pass through toll gates. It would, however, prevent reading those IDs at
| other times.
EZpass actually went in the opposite direction.  When I got my EZpass a number
of years back, they provided such a bag, along with instructions on use. These
days, they no longer provide the bag, and indirectly they strongly discourage
you from using any such thing:  According to the rules, EZpasses must be
mounted on your windshield:  They provide a variant on Velcro strips, which
make the box a pain to remove while driving.  (For commercial vehicles,
there's an external, permanently-mounted version).  People used to just keep
the thing loose inside the car and wave it at the sensor, which apparently
caused to many misreads, leading to traffic backups.  Now, if they catch you
doing that, there's a substantial fine.

							-- Jerry

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