Police and Lawyers Love E-ZPass

John_Schmidt writes "The AP is reporting that police are using EZ-Pass records to solve crimes. Lawyers are also getting the records to use in divorce cases. The article also mentions that the NYS Thruway has sensors to read the cards along the highway (not just at toll booths) but says the data is scrambled and not stored."

Why Wait?

[tedgyz]

Let's just get those RFID tags injected into our necks and get this over with. It is inevitable.

Simple solution

[bobthemuse]

Send me your EZ-pass and $5, I'll put in a small push-button switch. Only activate it when you're not out doing illegal things :-)

INVASION OF PRIVACY

[nil5]

ALERT ALERT!!!! This is even worse than having to have a LICENSE PLATE! I don't want anyone else, (LET ALONE POLICE!) knowing who I am.

Re:How soon..

[Joe U]

And if you do it in New York City, you should get some kind of cash prize.

(There's always traffic in NYC, traffic at 2am on the Cross Island Parkway...WHY?!)

Re:Simple solution

[LostCluster]

If your anti-static bag is not available, store it in your tin-foil hat. Same effect.

Re:Why Wait?

[Jeffery McGrew]

RFID tags? In the neck? WTF?

Why didn't anyone tell me about this before I went and had this damn barcode tattooed onto my forehead?!?

Always outdated. Damn. Now I'm not gonna be 'cool'.

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[account_deleted]

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One Pass...

[Doc Ruby]

One Pass To rule them all
One Pass to find them
One Pass to bring them all
And in the darkness, bind them

Thank you, Sir Rudy Giuliani, former NYC prosecutor, for pushing the E-Z Pass on us when you were NYC mayor, yapping about "court orders" and "due process" for access to the data. Now you can see all the motorists on the East Coast shining in your Palantir.

Is this really that difficult?

[HarveyBirdman]

If you're going someplace you don't want recorded, put the freeway pass into the trunk. Duh.

Re:How soon..

[iminplaya]

I think it would be cool if Diebold made the E-ZPass machines. Since they don't have printers, they could never send out the ticket.

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[account_deleted]

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35 years ago in Pennsylvania

[Anonymous Coward]

They stamped the date and times on the paper toll tickets for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. When you exited the turnpike, they compared your exit timestamp with the entry timestamp you received when you entered the turnpike. They had a pre-printed table of elapsed times to translate into average miles-per-hour. If you arrived at the exit too soon, you automatically got a speeding violation. My dad narrowly avoided getting a ticket by being less than one minute short of the violation time. He did not tell the toll booth operator that we had stopped along the way at a roadside park and had a picnic lunch too :-)

Re:INVASION OF PRIVACY

[Kohath]

Some of us are actually wondering why we have to have big identification numbers on our cars everywhere we go while others walk around in unlicensed shoes with impunity.

The burden of forced identification or licensing should be for those who've been convicted, not for innocent people minding their own business.

The licensing of drivers has led to a slow erosion in the very idea of freedom. After all, you need a license to drive, so why should you be able to paint your house, sell retail items, or take care of children without a license?

The current presumption is that no one's allowed to drive unless they've been given explicit permission by the government. The presumption _should be_ that you're allowed to drive unless that freedom has been taken away from you.

Wait a minute...

[n0nsensical]

Not soon enough, IMHO. Imagine how many countless lives could be saved by using this technology to get wreckless assholes who can't drive safely off the road.

But they're wreckless! Obviously they can drive safely if they haven't had a wreck!

Re:Is this really that difficult?

[Anonymous Coward]

...Right next to the bodies.

Re:How soon..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet another reason I'll never move to Texas.

It's now officialy a religion

[Hal The Computer]

Ok, so we've got a holy book and really funny dress.
My CowboyNeal, we've got a full blown religion on our hands.

(Oh great I'm surely going to goatse.cx for this.)

Re:How soon..

[Atzanteol]

I assume they'll be giving free EZ Tag's out? How do they expect people from out of state to use the road?

Re:How soon..

[Minna Kirai]

You deserve a ticket.

He deserves a high paying career as a Boeing contractor designing our nation's next generation of low-altitude combat aircraft.

Re:How soon..

[Chmcginn]

One of the more eerie sights I've seen, for the city that never sleeps

We said it never sleeps, not that it never passes out after the fireworks display and a case of Stroh's. There's legally too drunk to drive, and then there's can't-reach-the-car too drunk to drive.

Re:INVASION OF PRIVACY

[Poeir]

There never was a John Gilmore. All citizens must present identification at airports. I repeat, John Gilmore never existed.