'The MTC [Metropolitan Transportation Commission] data collection system relies on FasTrak™ toll tags ... [this is one of] two data sources ... used to calculate average speeds and travel times on Bay Area freeways.'
An example of how an RFID based toll-road system is now being used for something completely different - gathering data about traffic jams. The system seemed to have ignored privacy at first. Initially they mailed mylar bags to people who were worried about privacy. Now they have introduced technical measures and a privacy policy. This is an interesting early example of RFID being used for an application that may not have been intended initially, and was not as big a news story as I might have expected. I would be interested to know what people think of the privacy protections being proposed here.
PS Another privacy question with toll road systems is data protection. This is an old story about toll road data and a divorce case.
Posted by kashton at August 22, 2003 02:40 PMWhile the privacy protections that have been put in place by 511 seem laudable. It leads one to wonder about the underlying FasTrak tags. They are supposed to beep when scanned, but 511 has defeated that. Is there anything to stop another agency from putting in their own readers and doing some of the things which 511 promises never to do? For example, ticketing. Even if FasTrak administrators refuse to share customer information, the police could set up a system that upon deciding you drove between two points too quickly, could take a picture of your license plate for identification, and your face in case you claim not to have been operating your vehicle at the time of the infraction.