Cassius

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.ph...2-041623-4522r

Wireless World: Chips track license plates
United Press International | August 12, 2005
By Gene J. Koprowski

CHICAGO -- A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World.

The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "RFID is all the rage these days," said Bradley Gross, chairman of Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., "but my fear is that this use of the technology is tracking at its worst."

The reason for the concern in the legal and privacy-rights communities is that e-plates may expand the ability of police to track individuals by the movement of their vehicles.

A single RFID reader can identify dozens of vehicles fitted with e-plates moving at any speed at a distance of about 100 yards. The e-plate looks just like a standard plate, but it contains an embedded chip that cannot be seen or removed. It is self-powered with a battery life of up to 10 years.

"Police will be able to track your every move when you drive," said Liz McIntyre, an RFID expert and author of the forthcoming book, "Spychips: How Major Corporations and the Government Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID" (Nelson Current, October 2005). "What if they put these readers at a mosque? They could tell who was inside at a worship service by which cars were in the parking lot."

Indeed, the makers of the technology boast that the e-plates can furnish access control, automated tolling, asset tracking, traffic-flow monitoring and vehicle crime and "non-compliance." The chips can be outfitted with 128 bit encryption to prevent hacking.

The problem is people other than the vehicle's owner quite often are at the wheel.

"Will this, ultimately, stop terrorism?" Gross asked. "The occupants of cars change continuously. Terrorists can steal cars."

Similar technology already has been used in the United States, experts said.

"The technology side of this is readily available, as it is used in the high-frequency battery-powered transmitters in the toll road systems like Fastrak," said attorney Dave Abel, with the international law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP, who was an engineer before coming to the bar. "To use the toll road, a user signs up -- providing name, address, billing info, et cetera, which is stored in a database. Each time they drive past the reader station they are billed or a credit is deducted from an account."

Security access points could justify the expense, but placing them even at key intersections may not be very practical, according to lawyers at Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd & McGrath in Costa Mesa, Calif., a spokeswoman said.

The cost of roadside readers is significant -- although the price per chip is estimated to be only 20 cents.

Some experts said governments already are using the chips embedded in tollway access cards without heed to privacy rights. In Texas, for example, tollway authorities have been "making printouts of the records of every time you pass through a toll booth, what time you passed through," McIntyre said. "The government hasn't established a privacy policy for this, and people are not being informed that they are doing this. This is an instance of Big Brother on the highway."

At present, not all Texas tolling authorities are using the RFID tags. The Central Texas Mobility Authority is planning to use tags for tolls in the future.

Asked if his agency had a policy or user manual which described potential uses for data collected from the RFID tags, or one in the works, Steve Pustelnyk, a CTMA spokesman, told Wireless World, "our agency doesn't have what you are looking for."

How are our rights eroding? Let me count the ways...

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Niteshift

Wait a second, these guys are talking about different technologies in interchangable terms.

Some of what they are talking about, "tracking your every move", is done by GPS tracking.

RFID, as the article mentions, is only good for 100 yards or less. That's close enough to see with the naked eye.

This quote makes no sense: ""What if they put these readers at a mosque? They could tell who was inside at a worship service by which cars were in the parking lot."


Huh? The RFID only gives you the registration info, which is exactly what we get now by running the license plate through traditional means. That means we won't know anymore than we already do by looking at the current tag, calling it in and waiting for the DMV to tell us who owns it. That still doesn't tell us who drove it there or who is inside.

To me, this is a big to-do about nothing.

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Cassius

It doesn't concern me so much about what info they could get, as it does about it being automated. A reader could be set up in any number of locations, all traffic automatically monitored and recorded.

Kind of like the cameras they have in some states to auto-clock you if you are speeding, take a picture of the license plate, and mail you the ticket. I don't like those either.

I much prefer a human LEO that I have to deal with. What if my wife is having a baby? There are legitimate reasons to speed on occasion (not often), and a human LEO understands these. A camera does not.

This is similar. I'm not concerned about LEOs being able to spot my car and manually run the license plate to see who it's registered to, if I have any warrants, etc etc. I _am_ concerned about the fact that with enough of these readers set up, the government could have a trail of exactly where I'd been driving. I don't want the government to know my "flight plan" with no reason or cause.

It also troubles me that the technology would be virtually invisible. The reader could be installed in a concrete pole, or in the ground. People may begin to be tracked and never know it. Hell, I could already have an RFID tag in my license plate right now! How would I know?

It's just one more baby step towards the cliff. Technology gets cheaper, smaller, and more invisible as time goes on. Right now, installing RFID readers at every intersection would require a monumental infrastructure investment. But if they get the groundwork in place where it is legal for them to do it "in certain places", then 20 years from now when an RFID reader costs five cents, what is to stop them from installing them in all public roads, buried in the asphault every 500 yards?

Cassius

Also, I must point out that if they succeed in putting an RFID chip in license plates, then it is only natural for them to try and put it in driver's licenses (especially if we get a national ID card) next. Then you don't even have to be driving for them to track you, you only have to have your driver's license / ID card with you (which everyone takes everywhere, and I _think_ (not sure) that in some places it's required that you carry identification so that you can present it to a LEO if you are questioned)

Niteshift

So what if they can keep track of what cars went through an intersection. It's in public view. There is no privacy issue there. They could put up a video camera and run all the tags later. No true difference.

I don't see any mention of enforcement actions based on the RFID tag. So that's not really relevant either.

Cassius

So, say 20 years from now, there's an RFID reader in the pavement at every intersection in the US. Consequently, they have a record of everywhere you go, all the time. They know when you go to the grocery store. They know when you go to the liquor store. They know when you go to the gun shop.

You don't have a problem with that?

I know it's in public view. And I would have no problem with an officer "tailing" me during all of that, because they're not going to do it for long before they get bored.

But if it's all automated, they could have a record of where I went, where you went, where every citizen went during the last 5 years. I see something horribly Orwellian about that.

Higher Logic

Jesus Christ, how come everything always has to go back to terrorism. Like a terrorist gives a shit about stealing someone's car to do something with it.Yeah, but you voluntarily sign up for this. We had this where I used to live in South Carolina, we had an expressway where you signed up to buy an RFID pass that let you go through the toll booth without stopping and paying someone. It's not like they made us put this in our car, it was for convenience!

And good point Cass, you have to look down the road. I already hate the idea of cameras everywhere. I was watching on Fox when they talked about that little girl who was kidnapped at a car wash or something, and they were like, "yeah, we should just put cameras everywhere, it would stop people from taking children and blah blah blah"

Terrorism is the new "it's for the children" today it seems.

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chronic2

What everyone here must understand is this, driving is a privilege, not a right. Therefore the government has every right to monitor all vehicles on the road in whatever manner they choose. If you're not breaking the driving laws then you have nothing to worry about. And this is coming from someone who has gotten speeding tickets and deserved every one of them.

chronic2

You see it as horrible, but as far as a law enforcement tool, I see it as extremely helpful. Kidnapped children could be located or fugitives could be caught if their whereabouts could be easily tracked. I see it as an advancement of the Amber Alert program. This would give the police a powerful tool to bring people to justice. Why would you be afraid if all they were doing was watching you? Thats what we pay the police to do, watch for criminal activity and apprehend suspects.

Cassius

This is a leap of logic that I think is invalid. Just because driving is a privilege, doesn't mean THEY have the right to do whatever they want where automobiles are concerned. If it did, then why can you refuse to consent to a search during a traffic stop if they have no probable cause? The reason probable cause is needed is because courts have ruled that, constitutionally, citizens have a certain expectation of privacy in their automobiles. It is a lower expectation than in the home, but it is greater than almost anywhere BUT the home. The issue in this case is likewise an issue of privacy -- privacy not to have your movements tracked.

As far as a law enforcement tool, it would be extremely helpful if authorities could wiretap your phone without warrant, whenever they felt like it. Yet wiretap laws exist and generally a warrant is needed (excepting the current President's recent actions).

This is how it begins. Why would you be afraid of doing away with the wiretapping laws if all they were doing was listening to you?