[This is slightly longer version of my article that appeared 
in the March 3 1995 issue of The New York Times.]

The Road Watches You: 'Smart' highway systems may know too much
(C) 1995, Simson L. Garfinkel

Highway authorities throughout the country are building futuristic Ōsmart roadĶ systems designed to unclog our highways and bridges, improve driver safety, and create a variety of new services for our nationÕs motorists. But these smart roads could lead to an Orwellian surveillance state if we do not act now to change their course.

One smart road system is already in operation on New YorkÕs Tappan Zee Bridge. Called E-ZPass, the system allows drivers to drive through the toll plaza without reaching for their wallets or rolling down their windows. Instead, a computer operated by the Thruway Authority reads an electronic tag mounted inside the carÕs windshield, and automatically deducts the toll from a special pre-established account.

Other systems are going up around the country. In Florida, the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has a system called E-PASS which lets drivers pay their tolls on the East-West Expressway and certain parts of the Central Florida GreeneWay. Instead of a windshield tag, E-PASS uses a radio transponder the size of a flashlight mounted under the carÕs front bumper. A similar system is being planned for the San Francisco Bay Area.

These automatic toll collection systems are just the beginning of a nationwide plan called Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS. Rather than have each city adopt its own tag or transponder, the Department of Transportation and ITS America, a Washington-based organization that promotes the system, are scrambling to create a single, national standard.

As envisioned, smart roads could further reduce highway congestion by alerting drivers to upcoming accidents; a computer display mounted on the dashboard could suggest alternative routes. With its planned two-way communication between the car and the intelligent road, ITS could even eliminate the search of a place to park. Instead, your carÕs computer could automatically locate the nearest lot with an opening and electronically reserve you a place.

But there is a dark side to this plan, a privacy problem that its boosters are trying to pave under. These systems offer unprecedented opportunities to monitor the movements of drivers. It would create a bank of personal information that government and private industry might have difficulty resisting.

Consider FloridaÕs E-PASS system. Each month, every E-PASS subscriber gets a detailed statement listing the exact time, date and location that each toll was collected.  ITS America has adopted a set of privacy principles which say that states shouldnÕt take advantage of this dat, yet the organization  specifically envisions that Ōstates may legislate conditions under which ITS information will be made available.Ķ

Phil Agre, who teaches communications at the University of California, San Diego, and closely follows privacy issues, warns that there might be other unintended consequences of the widespread use of ITS systems.  Auto insurance companies already offer discounts to driver who donÕt live in areas of high auto theft or accidents; in the future, says Agree, they might offer discounts to drivers who can prove that they havenÕt driven onto Ōthe wrong side of the tracks.Ķ 

The data could also be sold illegally by insiders. Information about a personÕs movements might be a key fact in forcing an out-of-court settlement in a divorce or workerÕs compensation case. Private investigators would have a big incentive to bribe low-paid clerical workers for a photocopy of somebodyÕs toll-crossing bill.

There is an alternative to this system. Instead of transmitting an account number, a radio would transmit "digital cash" using a smart card inside the car  similar to the telephone cards used in many European countries. But judging by plans under way so far, state agencies and the Government haven't shown much interest in making privacy a priority in the design of the tomorrowÕs intelligent highways. 

Americans have always loved the freedom that their cars give them. Could that too become a thing of the past?

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Simson Garfinkel is a Cambridge-based writer who covers privacy issues. His fourth book, PGP: Pretty Good Privacy, was published by OÕReilly and Associates in January.