"Smart Roads" for toll collection and traffic logging
Here in Seattle there is a proposal to turn a couple of traffic chokepoints into toll roads. Because a toll plaza would back things up even worse, I'm guessing they'll look to an automated system that will let you pay without leaving your car. This is established tech -- a nifty article about it showed up in _Electronic Design_ last month. The downside is that it'll not be designed with privacy in mind at all, and will eventually have this pesky database of who went by the toll booth and when. We all know that old databases never die, they just get put on tape and stuffed in a box, to wait for someone with a curious streak to come by. This is a well-established problem with naiive designs of automated toll plazas, and I am looking for examples of things that could be done with this database by someone with ill intent, or could be done with the toll system itself if it got to be more widespread. - Obviously, if your car is talking to the road all the time, speeding tickets are a gimme. - You might be targeted for "further investigation" if you happen to drive by the wrong part of town. Gotta step up the heat on that war on drugs, ya know. I can come up with all sorts of ways to detect people from committing crimes (and don't really need those examples -- folks might think I *want* a Big Brother Highway!), but I'm curious what peoples' fears are about what this could mean to innocent folks, Joe Sixpack and his pals. There is a meeting in a few days where public comment on the toll road idea is being solicited, and I want to have some really compelling horror stories with which to capture peoples' imaginations about what a Big Brother Highway could mean. I want to scare people, but I want to scare 'em with something believable. If there's an archive that mentions anything like this, please point it out in private mail. I'll summarize what I get to the list, and also make that document available on the web, if anything interesting comes up. Thanks! Scott -- Scott Northrop (206)559-9878 northrop@netcom.com, northrop@mccaw.com Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules. Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Book IV
Scott Northrop wrote:
Here in Seattle there is a proposal to turn a couple of traffic chokepoints into toll roads. Because a toll plaza would back things up even worse, I'm ... The downside is that it'll not be designed with privacy in mind at all, and will eventually have this pesky database of who went by the toll booth and when. We all know that old databases never die, they just get put on tape and stuffed in a box, to wait for someone with a curious streak to come by. This
No doubt the various cites and local governments can raise extra revenue by selling the tracking data to the IRS for their new "Compliance 2000" program, to FinCEN to see if suspicious travel patterns are being engaged in, to the War on Some Drugs soldiers to see if the car is deemed to be a drug carrier, and so on. Even better, women seeking abortions, for example, could be denied access to the toll roads that are known to lead to the evil abortionists! The possibilities are endless. All of this is old news, in that Brunner warned of ubiquitous computers in "The Shockwave Rider," and Chaum explicity dealt with the threat of position tracking in his proposal for digital, untraceable cash. Lucky Greene demonstrated at the last CP meeting a toll payment card that uses Digicash. About the size of a credit card, it handles the payment but is unlinkable to driver or car ID. Cities won't use this technology unless customers demand it. Of course, cities don't view road users as customers who can take their business elsewhere. I don't expect very widespread use of digicash. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Cypherpunks list: majordomo@toad.com with body message of only: subscribe cypherpunks. FAQ available at ftp.netcom.com in pub/tc/tcmay
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