Posted on 12/25/2005 6:36:48 AM PST by John Jorsett
Trust federal bureaucrats to take a good idea and transform it into a frightening proposal to track Americans wherever they drive.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go. So far, Washington state and Oregon have received fat federal checks to figure out how to levy these "mileage-based road user fees."
Now electronic tracking and taxing may be coming to a DMV near you. The Office of Transportation Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million. A spokeswoman on Friday said the office is "shooting for the end of the year" for the announcement, and more money is expected for GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking efforts.
In principle, the idea of what bureaucrats like to call "value pricing" for cars makes sound economic sense.
Airlines and hotels have long charged less for off-peak use. Toll roads would be more efficient--in particular, less congested--if they could follow the same model and charge virtually nothing in the middle of the night but high prices during rush hour.
That price structure would encourage drivers to take public transportation, use alternate routes, or leave earlier or later in the day.
The problem, though, is that these "road user fee" systems are being designed and built in a way that strips drivers of their privacy and invites constant surveillance by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Zero privacy protections
Details of the tracking systems vary. But the general idea is that a small GPS device, which knows its location by receiving satellite signals, is placed inside the vehicle.
Some GPS trackers constantly communicate their location back to the state DMV, while others record the location information for later retrieval. (In the Oregon pilot project, it's beamed out wirelessly when the driver pulls into a gas station.)
The problem, though, is that no privacy protections exist. No restrictions prevent police from continually monitoring, without a court order, the whereabouts of every vehicle on the road.
No rule prohibits that massive database of GPS trails from being subpoenaed by curious divorce attorneys, or handed to insurance companies that might raise rates for someone who spent too much time at a neighborhood bar. No policy bans police from automatically sending out speeding tickets based on what the GPS data say.
The Fourth Amendment provides no protection. The U.S. Supreme Court said in two cases, U.S. v. Knotts and U.S. v. Karo, that Americans have no reasonable expectation of privacy when they're driving on a public street.
The PR offensive
Even more shocking are additional ideas that bureaucrats are hatching. A report prepared by a Transportation Department-funded program in Washington state says the GPS bugs must be made "tamper proof" and the vehicle should be disabled if the bugs are disconnected.
"This can be achieved by building in connections to the vehicle ignition circuit so that failure to receive a moving GPS signal after some default period of vehicle operation indicates attempts to defeat the GPS antenna," the report says.
It doesn't mention the worrisome scenario of someone driving a vehicle with a broken GPS bug--and an engine that suddenly quits half an hour later. But it does outline a public relations strategy (with "press releases and/or editorials" at a "very early stage") to persuade the American public that this kind of contraption would be, contrary to common sense, in their best interest. #textCarousel { width: 140px; border-color: #630; border-width: 2px; border-style: solid; padding: 10px; float: right; margin: 15px 0 15px 15px; background-image: url(/i/ne05/fmwk/greyfadeback.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: -150px top; } <p>#textCarousel li { font-size: 95%; line-height: 1em; margin-bottom: 10px; } <p>#textCarousel h4 { margin: 0 0 5px 0; font-size: 110%; }
One study prepared for the Transportation Department predicts a PR success. "Less than 7 percent of the respondents expressed concerns about recording their vehicle's movements," it says.
That whiff of victory, coupled with a windfall of new GPS-enabled tax dollars, has emboldened DMV bureaucrats. A proposal from the Oregon DMV, also funded by the Transportation Department, says that such a tracking system should be mandatory for all "newly purchased vehicles and newly registered vehicles."
The sad reality is that there are ways to perform "value pricing" for roads while preserving anonymity. You could pay cash for prepaid travel cards, like store gift cards, that would be debited when read by roadside sensors. Computer scientists have long known how to create electronic wallets--using a technique called blind signatures--that can be debited without privacy concerns.
The Transportation Department could require privacy-protective features when handing out grants for pilot projects that may eventually become mandatory. It's now even more important because a new U.S. law ups the size of the grants; the U.K. is planning GPS tracking and per-mile fees ranging between 3 cents and $2.
We'll see. But given the privacy hostility that the Transportation Department and state DMVs have demonstrated so far, don't be too optimistic.
If they did not have other motives, a simple mileage tracker would suffice.
Many new cars also have data recorders similar to aricraft "black boxes". What do you wanna bet that will be potentially used against members of the citizenry?
Wishful thinking ... "Don't worry, We will never try and clone a human being."
"We will never use a Social Security number as an ID number."
I think they all do these days (even my 1998 car has one), and they've already been used against drivers. Since they record things like speed, brake and accelerator application, etc., they've been used in prosecuting drivers in traffic accidents.
I hope you don't really beleive that.
There were car rental companies that used GPS trackers to "fine" renters for driving too faast. They lost in court over doing that, but what would stop a government entity from doing the same thing. Of course, we will get people saying it's ok, just follow every rule and the government is your friend. Just like Soviet Russia. Yup.
I'm still waiting for delivery of my Kobe Tai clone.
I sure hope this won't apply to motorcycles.
They already have "mileage-based road-user fees" only they're called gas taxes.
Check into how the government currently tracks commercial vehicles. Most 18 wheelers are equiped with a satilite tracking device, when stopped by a law enforcement officer anywhere, they can check back and see where I was and how fast I was driving. The electronic diesel engines in most trucks also keep track of speed,RPM and other things like how many times you applied your brakes. (If you apply your brakes a lot, it proves you were following too close.) It is only a matter of time before the same technology is applied to private vehicles. You are already there if you have Onstar or something similar. Goes back to my favorite movie, Enemy of the State (Gene Hackman,Will Smith)
With a CDL, you would be very screwed if you tampered with it, too.
America's Wars Total
Sam Adams best summed it up when he said," If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands that which feed you. May your chain be set lightly upon you and posterity forget ye were our countrymen."
Time for a revolution against this dumba$$ idea! What kind of communists are sitting in positions of power? They need to be fired, if not prosecuted!
Sentence needs to be re-worded by dropping the word "potentially".
The Fedgov is out to implement "all-citizen-all-the-time" tracking, by whatever means it takes---national ID cards, national "health-care" databases, vehicle tracking. You name it, and they are out to implement it.
The only reason they aren't going directly to the type that can be physically implanted into our bodies is that the technology to power devices that track continuously isn't available.
It won't be llong till kids are implanted with RFID tags a little more advanced than those they use on dogs.
Yeah, we can strike the "potentially" from that sentence.
Also, a tax on the fuel consumed would be more fair, because a heavier vehicle (generaly) uses more fuel, and they do more damage to the roadbed. A pure milage-based tax would not distribute the cost as appropriately.
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