It looks like one non-political solution to this problem would be a gadget to jam the receiver so it can't activate the transponder or, alternately, receive the transponder's signal. Cryptographic relevance? They might start doing something tricky with frequencies, etcetera. -Allen =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help@weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Sat, 03 Feb 96 10:21:11 EST From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator <comp-privacy@uwm.edu> To: Comp-privacy@uwm.edu Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V8#012 Computer Privacy Digest Sat, 03 Feb 96 Volume 8 : Issue: 012 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 01 Feb 1996 19:25:04 -0800 (PST) From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu> Subject: Universal Tracking of Road Traffic I have here the most amazing document. It is a Request for Proposals (number 95-7, dated January 1996) from the State of California Air Resources Board (Research Division, 2020 L Street, Sacramento CA 95814) entitled "Incorporation of Radio Transponders into Vehicular On-Board Diagnostic Systems". The ARB wants someone to build transponders and receivers that allow computers to automatically poll cars to determine if their emissions systems are failing, in the process accumulating a database of the cars' locations on particular dates and times. According to the RFP, by 1996 new cars and light trucks in California are required to have onboard systems that illuminate a dashboard light if the emissions systems are malfunctioning. Since the appearance of this light does not ensure that the car's owner will get the emissions system fixed, the ARB is proposing that new cars and light trucks starting in the year 2000 (it doesn't say all of them, but it does say 1,000,000 of them) be required to include transponders that can broadcast the car's VIN number, the emissions system fault codes, the vehicle's location at the time of the query, and a status code. The receivers are supposed to be capable of automatically polling the "fleet" of cars equipped with transponders and storing in a database the following information: date and time of current and last query, VIN, status and fault codes, and "vehicle location (to the zip code level, and city)". The contractor also "shall produce a public service video documenting the system and explaining the concept and the benefits of such a transponder-assisted approach to enhancing the present I/M [Inspection and Maintenance] program." In case it's not clear, the ARB is envisioning a system under which cars sold in California will be required to incorporate a device ("no larger than a pack of cigarettes") that the state can use to track its whereabouts at all times. This plan poses a greater threat to individual privacy than automatic toll collection or any other plan currently under development for non-commercial transport informatics, so far as I know. Environmental concerns are real, and the air in Los Angeles is a crime, but plenty of means are available for alleviating air pollution without constructing the technological groundwork for an authoritarian society. -- Phil Agre ------------------------------ End of Computer Privacy Digest V8 #012 ******************************