True, but that’s actually beside my point. For a surveillance tool to be useful, it needs to be available when needed. If the victim doesn’t happen to have EZPass - and most people don’t - there goes your surveillance. I think it’s just not reliable enough to be useful.
A lot can be learned by looking through the opponent’s eyes.
Depends on where you live and the geography, I guess. The Golden Gate bridge, for example, is now fastrak only. No toll operators there anymore, so if you’re commuting to or from the north bay, you are very very likely to have one.
And some parts of the US are talking about adopting the ETR system already in use in Canada, which can operate without transponders by taking high-speed, high-res captures of license plates.
Various places have “all-electronic tolling systems”. For E-470 in Colorado you either have the ExpressToll sticker tag or they take a picture of your license plate and mail you a bill (and increase the cost of the toll).
I never mounted my ezpass bc of esthetics more than anything and I don’t drive on the turnpike or the parkway all that much, or even into NYC for that matter, and generally I keep it in my console in the silver bag it ships with. However there have been times where I’ve locked my console with the ezpass it in, and then went onto the parkway and been unable to retrieve it since my keys are in the ignition. Anyway… The thing has read in while in the console but not in the bag, so it’s a fairly powerful system.
I’ve seen these antennas pop up along the Interstate corridor between Chicago and Milwaukee on the non tollway sections. I assume it’s part of the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin Tri-State highway project.
Same deal with the 520 bridge in WA. You can buy a Good to Go! pass or pay double via licence plate.
Simple. If it does not exist then we build it.
Depends very much on where you are. In So. FLuh, most people have EZ Pass. Too many toll booths not to. And you don’t have to order them by mail, either. You can just buy one at the supermarket, load it online, and then auto-load it as well.
I don’t think those readers are to read EZPass or IPass transponders, but part of the electronic weigh station bypass system for trucks. Usually you’ll see them near traditional weigh stations.
Although I imagine the equipment could be repurposed to also collect information on passing EZPass and IPass type transponders, since I think it’s roughly the same technology.
The article says that they anonymize the IDs and the traffic management systems aren’t linked to the EZPass user databases. It actually sounds like they’ve made at least some attempt to take privacy concerns into account while collecting incredibly useful traffic management data.
That said, I imagine the right kind of government agency could probably still get access to the data and reverse the anonymization to link it up to the EZPass user data.
But at the end of the day, while there are some scary privacy implications of EZPass, if you’re driving a car you’re already announcing your location to the authorities with your legally mandated license plate. Almost every toll plaza is taking a picture of your license plate whether you use EZPass or not, and NYPD has license plate readers all over the place (including in many patrol cars equipped with real time license plate scanners). So I’m really not sure what privacy I’m giving up by using EZPass to pay my tolls. And having the ability to bypass the cash lanes (or use the car pool discount to knock almost $9 off each Hudson river crossing vs. the cash rate) is awfully attractive.
And I’m guessing they’re salivating at the thought of charging what the 407 ETR charges us here in Ontario.
Maybe Mike Harris can fuck them over too.
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