Posted on 09/13/2013 4:08:10 PM PDT by markomalley
After spotting a police car with two huge boxes on its trunk — that turned out to be license-plate-reading cameras — a man in New Jersey became obsessed with the loss of privacy for vehicles on American roads. (He’s not the only one.) The man, who goes by the Internet handle “Puking Monkey,” did an analysis of the many ways his car could be tracked and stumbled upon something rather interesting: his E-ZPass, which he obtained for the purpose of paying tolls, was being used to track his car in unexpected places, far away from any toll booths.
Puking Monkey is an electronics tinkerer, so he hacked his RFID-enabled E-ZPass to set off a light and a “moo cow” every time it was being read. Then he drove around New York. His tag got milked multiple times on the short drive from Times Square to Madison Square Garden in mid-town Manhattan…
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Hmmm, a great concern I’ve had too. BTW, I remember seeing the idea of EZPass in an old 1967 Popular Science Magazine.
In Singapore the RFID is used for tolls and parking garage fees. Plus it sometimes let’s you into your building garage and the American Club garage.
It is convenient not to have to stop and pay at parking garages.
Oh, sorry... I wasn't supposed to post that until 2017.
-PJ
Well, well well...WHO would have expected this.
Don’t worry, though, the data collected will NEVER get abused, and it’s all anonymous anyway...no, really.
</barfsarc>
We have the same thing here in California only it’s called FasTrak. CalTrans actually provided us with an Faraday Cage Bag with each transponder and we keep them in them except when needed to pay toll. The interesting thing is that they have all your license plate numbers ( those for any car in which you will use any of the assigned transponders) and they photograph your plates when they read your transponder as a “backup.” We’ve experimented with not using the transponders when they are needed and just so long as they can compare your license number with your account they don’t contact you. We did have a transponder fail, and after a month or so, they sent us a letter asking us to arrange to replace it. And we have used it in a car that was not on our list, and they sent us a notice immediately.
And for some reason, under all of this survellance, we can’t find illegal aliens.
If only their tracking could be turned over to FedEx.
Really. What cave has this guy been living in?
With hybrid and electric vehicles gaining popularity a mileage based user fee will soon replace the liquid fuels taxes.
This is just part of the infrastructure for making the conversion.
My FasTrak responder has not worked for over a year. Doesn’t make any difference as they just read the license plate.
Heck, just keeping my Sunpass under the seat makes it unreadable going through a toll.
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