Police and Lawyers Love E-ZPass 736
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."
How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
You passed between milepost 1 and 15 in under 6 minutes, here's your speeding ticket.
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Answer: Not long at all.
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
Uh, NO. (Score:3, Informative)
The E-Z Pass card happens to be just yet another RF ID tag. Place the tag behind a metal shield and the thing won't work. Put it in a metalized anti-static bag (Instant Faraday Cage...) and it worn't work. So, how would the EZ Pass readers see a tag through large metallic objects, h
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
It's now officialy a religion (Score:5, Funny)
My CowboyNeal, we've got a full blown religion on our hands.
(Oh great I'm surely going to goatse.cx for this.)
Get a clue. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ahh yes, our dear Slashdot, where tinfoil is headwear and 1984 is the bible.
Rent a clue.
People organize and strive to obtain more control over their environment. That tendency includes both governments obtaining more control over their citizens/subjects and citizens/subjects defending themselves against such control.
But institutional groups (such as governments) tend to go on for a long time, accumulating ever more power, while individuals are replaced from time to time. So if nothing is done about it the tendency will be for governments to accumulate ever more power, and become ever more oppressive, until they become so tyrannical that they're attacked from within and/or without and eventually overthrown (which may end up with an even worse situation).
The founders of this country recognized that tendency of government to accumulate ever more power. They prescribed a system of institutional restraints. But, because the government would eventual work its way around it, they ALSO prescribed ongoing watchfulness by the citizenry, so they can use NON-violent means to back the government off before it goes so far that only violent means will work. "Eternal Vigilance is the price of Liberty."
Which is EXACTLY what is going on now: New tech makes for new opportunity for spying and oppression. The government starts using it because there's no specific rule against it and it helps them "do their jobs". Eventually the citizens catch on and raise a ruckus. Sometimes this ruckus results in the creation of specific rules to suppress the misuse and restore the status quo ante (or even improve on it).
Slashdot is all about new uses of technology. "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters." And what matters more than government misuse of new tech to oppress the citizens?
So of COURSE it shows up here. Of COURSE it makes up a significant fraction of the news items. Anybody can post, but ordinary citizens greatly outnumber the elite controllers. So of COURSE the bulk of the voices are against the new misuses of technology.
No tinfoil hats required.
This is a very healthy process. It's exactly what the founders of the country prescribed, to keep the country from developing into a tyranny and prosperity from degenerating into civil war.
Ridiculing the people criticizing the government's misuse of technology is NOT "conducive to these ends". But it does tell us something about the ridiculer:
Either he's a fool -
or he's on the wrong side.
Speaking of tin foil hats ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Get a clue. (Score:5, Insightful)
Atrox
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Speed check by Radar"
"Unmarked patrol cars"
"Speed check from Aircraft"
How is "Speed check by EZPass" much different?
It's different because it doesn't require any effort on the part of the Government. Meaning it is the start of a slippery slope towards an automated police state. Machines just do what they are programmed to do without regard to individual circumstance, and without being able to offer any assistance in true emergencies (like rushing someone to the hospital).
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Interesting)
If we have automated capture that catches and fines 100% of offenders - and that fucks up peoples lives far enough - the law will change. And then we're not all doing 85 in a 70 limit. We're doing 85 in an 85 limit.
Automated capture also costs less, on the whole, so the good policemen and women can be out hunting down murderers and the like - instead of fighting the endless war against speeding.
Personally - I find that quite attractive - assuming everyone stops being pussies and actually gives a fuck about CHANGING laws, not just BREAKING them.
SHIT - my hat!! my hat!!! WHERES MY TINFOIL HAT!!!!! that fucking cat has taken it again I bet!
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How soon.. (Score:2)
Stewey
Legislation (Score:2)
How many times have technologies, Ideas, Concepts been introduced with the premis that it will not be used in ways other than those stated. Then boom new party, new legislation and new use. Example the Homeland Security Act. I think municipalites should be liable for incorrect use of intended resourses. E-ZPass systems are intended for electronic Toll Booths therefore that is what it should be used for anything else should be deemed as abuse !!
incentives? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:incentives? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:incentives? (Score:4, Informative)
Actually I work for an Independent Insurance Agency and none of the carriers we work with (there are dozens) are talking about (or even have this on the drawing board) doing anything like this.
There was some talk sometime ago about some of the carriers looking to use GPS to verify garaging information -- i.e: Why do we have your garaging address as Syracuse when your car has spent the last 45 days in New York City where the rate of accidents and thefts are ten times higher?
But this hasn't happened yet (the carriers have no way to actually get this GPS information -- even if your car comes with the Black Box, which most of them don't) and it's hardly the road to a police state. We call lying about the garaging address "fraud" -- if you do this and get into an accident and they find out about it two things will happen: 1) They won't pay your claim (better hope you don't get sued) | 2) They will likely refer it to the authorities for prosecution as Insurance Fraud.
Also, your comment about the discounts isn't completely accurate (at least in my state -- admittedly I don't know anything about Insurance law outside of NY and our laws tend to be on the more liberal side). You can get discounts for defensive driving, having etched window glass (with your VIN), paying the policy in full (vs installments). You can also get surcharges for convictions or previous claim activity (we lump it all into the generic term 'incident'), having a poor credit score (if your carrier uses them -- not all do), or being an inexperienced operator (defined as less then three years licensed -- at least in NY).
If your auto insurance is starting with a really high rate and then being discounted down you are probably with a non-preferred carrier like Progressive. You need to find an Independent Agent who will write you with a preferred carrier -- if you don't qualify then chances are you are either young (in which case you are SOL) or have nobody to blame but yourself (excessive number of incidents).
In any case I think it will be quite awhile before we see any Insurance Carriers mandating GPS usage. Before they could do this they would have to clear it with the state insurance authorities -- in my state I doubt it would ever happen. As it stands right now it would be illegal for them to do this in my state -- surcharging you for speeding implies that you were convicted of speeding in a Court of Law after having had a chance to defend yourself. And even if you are convicted of speeding oftentimes they won't pick up on it -- not all carriers spend the money to run MVRs on you every time your policy comes up for renewal. We've had insureds get DWIs and not have the carriers find out about it.
Re:Hype and FUD ? (Score:3, Informative)
This is simply incorrect. First of all, black box recorders for cars are still experimental. They are not sold in any new cars today (unless you read something in the latest Autoweek, which has not made its way to my door yet).
The only vehicles that have a GPS which sends a signal when the airbad is deployed are cars equipped with OnStar (on GM cars, Mercedes Benz uses a different system run by
Re:Hype and FUD ? (Score:5, Informative)
http://privacynotes.com/EDR_Automotive/
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/automotive/2029
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/3
http://www.seniormag.com/headlines/blackboxcars
Re:Hype and FUD ? (Score:5, Informative)
"most recorders store only limited information on speed, seat-belt use, physical forces, brakes and other factors."
"gives critical data about speed, breaking and seat belt use."
"Generally, all newer cars with air bags are equipped with modules that determine when the bags are deployed."
and, the piece de resistance, from your last link:
Gosh, no GPS. Funny thing. Ya don't suppose those boxes might NOT have been meant for Keeping The Man On Top(TM)?
Gosh, it's unthinkable. Quick, put the tinfoil hat back on. They's a-coming.
Re:Hype and FUD ? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hype and FUD ? (Score:3, Informative)
Bullshit alert. This is like the "Urband Legend" of the car with Onstar that had a rep come online because the car was on a ferry, and the rep thought the car had driven into the lake.
Just doesn't work that way. First, the OnStar GPS tracks position only - there is no geographic data until the coordinates are uploaded to Onstar's service center. And, the car doesn't have some sort of telemetry system
Re:My '94 Escort (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting, as driving is done in a public place.
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if they operate under the premise that it will not be done today doesn't mean they won't change their minds in the future.
That is one reason I really don't trust those 'ezpass' systems. Those pushing this tech will swear on a stack of bibles that they aren't doing, and have no plans to do anything evil with the information they are capable f collecting. The easy way to find out exactly how truthful about this they are being is to try to buy one anonymously ith no identification with cash. You simply can't do it here in texas from what I understand. Sure, they can get your plates off the cameras they inevitably install, but simply tracking the comings and goings of a tag is much easier.
If there were no nefarious intentions on their part, I'd be able to stop by the local quickie mart, buy one of these things with cash, and simply use it until it ran out. Then I could either recharge it, or get another one. This isn't going to happen, because they want to be able to easily track you wherever you go, just in case you might do something naughty.
I can't believe we allow them to put up cameras all over the place on light poles, stoplights, and the like. I'm abaolutely amazed that there isn't an incredibly high mortality rate on them, because they deserve it.
Roads: NJ vs. PA (Score:3, Interesting)
As a child, I heard complaints about how the tolls did not disappear after the roads were paid off. When I moved to PA, I learned that having somebody pump your gas was to cut down unemployment, not somehow a safety issue. I also heard that the toll systems kept people employed.
I was poor in both states. I know all the roads to use to avoid the tolls, but they are much slower. Now my time is worth more than the tolls, but a decade ago I often took t
Re:How soon.. (Score:4, Informative)
Many government services require a moneyorder or certified check, such as the Penna vehicle sales tax. The application states not to send cash, and they discourage the use of personal checks with warnings of delays in service till the check clears.
There is a law or IRS regulation requiring IRS notification of any cash purchase of $10,000 or more. I remember seeing the notice hanging in the local Radio Shack back in the early 90's
Can you pay the IRS with coins?
Been tried, and it doesn't work.
The government makes the laws, those laws can be written to favor them. Many laws already are written that way:
The Government states that you owe taxes, You have to furnish proof that you do not. If you owe back taxes, along with taxes and possible penalties, you also have to pay interest.
If you prove that the Government owes you, they do not have to pay interest, nor are they penalized for holding on to your money. Why is this so? Because they wrote the rules to favor those in power, while trying to limit fraud and abuse of the system.
The Government that prints the statement of legal tender on the bills can choose to stop printing that statement. They stopped giving the bearer of silver certificates the equivalant value of sterling silver in the 60's, what makes you certain that they will honor cash in the future?
"This note is legfal tender" (Score:3, Informative)
The above quote comes from the Bank of Canada's website has a FAQ [bankofcanada.ca] on the use of currency and what you use and how you use banknotes to pay debt.
Does the vendor/retailer have to accept banknotes or coins. Not really, and I suspect that the law is probably the same in the US since the majority of this law
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
Details of the incident, please. I'd love to hear about it.
The last time I witnessed something like this was over 20 years ago at the IRS office in Houston. Back then, local offices had a teller function. One day a guy comes in and to pay off a liability and he's obviously peeved about the whole thing. I don't remember th
Re:How soon.. (Score:2)
Simon
Re:How soon.. (Score:2)
You passed between milepost 1 and 15 in under 6 minutes, here's your speeding ticket.
In the UK, a few years ago.
This is from memory, sorry no link.
Now (Score:2)
35 years ago in Pennsylvania (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now if the highway is not busy most (if not all drivers) are violating the law by speeding. It's bad because it creates a style of thinking: "it's ok beacuse everyone's doing the same". No need to mention that many people are dead from speeding.
But, I repeat again, if the highway speed is unreasonable low then you should use your democracy, with which you are so pr
How They decide speed limits (Score:5, Interesting)
Select the 85 percentile of that for the speed limit.
Enter politics, so write down 55 or 65 no matter how safe the road is.
Oh, and the standards used for road speed is still 1950's vehicles on skinny tires, no matter that even cheap cars have anti-lock brakes.
So yes, if speed limits had ANYTHING to do with what the roads could bear, perhaps we're respect the signs. Again: if the laws were based on reason (*cough*), they'd be respected. When speed limits are imposed because to raise ticket money, then it's wrong and the authoritive gov't needs to be kicked in the knees for it.
And instead of the police enforcing safe driving by ticketing people cruising along in the leftmost lane without passing anyone, or for lane changes without signals, or for eating/phoning while driving taking important attention away from piloting a 3000lb SUV at 90 feet per second...
No, they'll enforce "speeding laws" only.
Clearly, when I'm on a Calif Superhighway with few people on it - a road that's larger and its in better shape than parts of the autobahn I've seen - clearly, it's only safe for 65 when going 110 on the autobahn was almost dangerously slow. Because a sign says so.
Give me a driving test that 40% of the people fail the first time they try it, give me road that you have to have the "proven able" license to drive and I'll go for it.
RE: EZ Pass? It's in a lead bag (for film) in the glove box when I'm not going through a toll booth.
After our officials "promised" and swore up and down it would only be used for tolls, NJ and NY authorities have been caught MANY times abusing this.
Ready for your implanted RFID yet sir?
Bend over now
The parent may have an extra dose of soma for his obedience.
Re:How They decide speed limits (Score:4, Insightful)
That's how the roadway designers originally established recommended speed limits (by observing behaviour and implementing rules to accomodate the majority of drivers). Politicians tend to use speed limits as revenue generation schemes and "please think of the children" emotion-tugging.
Re:How They decide speed limits (Score:4, Insightful)
God, how I'd love to see someone get a ticket for going slower that the status quo speed, parked over there in the penultimate fast lane (2nd from left) on a 10 lane highway with people passing on left (when they can) and on the right.
If people are passing you on the right, you're breaking the law. You must move to the right except to pass.
If you change lanes without signalling ahead of time, you're breaking the law and endangering people. If you slow to 45 to take an exit without a signal on, you should get hit, then given a ticket. You are a hazard on the road.
But no, american "culture" is that you must drive, you must be able to drive and damnit, drive how you please and where you please. Just don't speed in front of The Man. Aside from drinking and weaving that's the only offence you'll get nailed for.
Re:How They decide speed limits (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, in most US states it is true that unless you are in the process of passing someone, you must be in the right hand lanes. However, it is also illegal to pass someone on the right unless they are in the process of making a left turn or are stopped on the road. Because someone is traveling at the speed limit does not make passing them legal, at least not in any state i've been in. And I'm sure yo
Re:How soon.. (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, if everyone on the 55 MPH freeway is driving a 75 MPH and you're moving at 20 MPH below the speed of traffic, you are yourself creating a potential traffic hazard, so you would be more likely to be involved in an accident, possibly the result of road rage, at the speed limit than at the speed of traffic.
How can someone be dead from speeding? If the road is wet and someone skids and wraps around a telephone pole at 60 miles per hour, do you really think the effect is going to be that different than at 55 miles per hour? If they're driving faster than that in the rain, the issue is that their car is going faster than it and/or the driver can safely handle in those conditions -- it has little to do with what number appears on the sign.
Again, I'd like to see some conclusive studies that speed limits actually help these situations. There's always a political or emotional spin on statistics released. How many of people killed in 85 MPH accidents were drunk? How many managed to fall asleep at the wheel? How many were talking on a cell phone? Obviously it helps somewhat but I'm curious just how much.
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
You mentioned 3 speeds, 55, 60, and 75
55^2/55^2 = 1
60^2/55^2 = 1.19
75^2/55^2 = 1.86
So you see, a bit of change in speed does make a difference.
Re:How soon.. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How soon.. (Score:2, Informative)
In cases like that, they could go after the people who take tickets just as easily as those with EZ-Pass (or Fastlane in MA etc)
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
No points for your license.
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, why does anyone have a problem with this? Highways are public. Where you go is [largely] public information. If you have a problem with speeding laws, change the laws, not the enforcement. Would people be less upset if they paid tons more money to post a guy with photographic memory at each toll booth and watch everoyne go by?
The only problem I have is that people aren't more honest about the system.
EZ Pass isn't needed for this (Score:2)
A simple software change can expand the system to issue speeding tickets.
Obstinately insisting on stopping and using coins is probably just a meaningless gesture.
Re:How soon.. (Score:2, Insightful)
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. So called "privacy advocates" be damned, there's absolutely nothing a reasonable person could consider private about the speed of a car on a public road.
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
That means you're doing over 150 miles per hour. You deserve a ticket. :)
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
it's not 15 miles, it's 14 miles. 15 minus 1.
so he was only doing slightly in excess of 140 miles per hour.
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
Well see congresspeople write these ideas on peices of paper, they call these, "Bills". Then they get together and submit these bills to this whole big group of people called Congress...heck, maybe this will help [kidsandpolitics.org]
Re:How soon.. (Score:3, Informative)
Because you don't know that the road is empty. Someone could pull out in front of you. Someone could run onto the road. You wouldn't have time to react at 140mph. Someone could get killed.
Speed limits aren't repressive tools of a repressive government. Speed limits are usually in line with the maximum safe speed of the road. And don't give me this bullshit of "it's not speed but speed difference". Yeah. Right. At higher speeds, you cover more distance in the time it takes you to reac
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Insightful)
That would make it highly obvious to criminals that everyone was being tracked. Criminals would cease using EZ-Pass.
A properly designed mass surveillance systems must be unobtrusive; you have to give the target the illusion that he or she is not being monitored. If the target is aware they're being tracked, they'll modify their behavior to "look good" for the cameras.
Whether you're more concerned about property rights or nonintrusive government, consider that as implemented, the EZ-Pass tracking system is one where the designers and participating governments have chosen to pass up the huge revenue from 10000 speeders a day, and they did so in order to increase the odds that the sonofabitch who stole your car last week gets nailed to the wall the instant he hits the interstate. Dude, that's a feature, not a bug!
Re:How soon.. (Score:5, Funny)
(There's always traffic in NYC, traffic at 2am on the Cross Island Parkway...WHY?!)
Why Wait? (Score:5, Funny)
And why not??? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:And why not??? (Score:3, Insightful)
The non-toll sensors mentioned in the article are intentionally designed not to identify users, just to allow the Thruway authority to track the average speeds on the road. The state authorities really don't have much incentive to write speeding tickets for reasons reasons other than safety in New York State, because the fines are payable to the city or town i
Simple solution (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Simple solution (Score:5, Funny)
a cellphone transmits much higher strength (Score:3, Interesting)
In any case, a cell phone requires the ability for the cell tower to hear you from a few miles away. The EZ-pass works in a couple dozen feet.
Re:Simple solution (Score:3, Informative)
Instant Alibi!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Instant Alibi!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Instant Alibi!!! (Score:2)
in a certain (rather spectacular) murder trial in Norway, one suspect's mobile phone was on an extended trip very far away from the murder site at the time, tracked by your ever-friendly telco's "cell tower association records". We do not know if the suspect went along.....
INVASION OF PRIVACY (Score:2, Funny)
Re:INVASION OF PRIVACY (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize you meant that as a joke, but some of us don't want our whereabouts known at every second of every day. This has nothing to do with paranoia (beyond the standard healthy dose), or a penchant for illegal activities. I just don't want my every move tracked.
Also, realize that this has a huge potential for abuse... I go through a toll perhaps once a month. If I had one of these EZ Passes (or the local equivalent, the TransPass), I would not notice for up to a month if someone stole it and had earned me quite a bit of debt. Now, even aside from the bill, what happens when my TransPass record for the past month shows me regularly visiting a mistress, or a crime scene, or some other place I've never gone, all because someone thought ahead of time to cover their tracks and use a stolen TransPass? Yeah, suuuuuuure the police/divorce-attourney will believe someone nabbed by pass and I just didn't notice...
This boils down to the classic argument about speed cameras - they don't prove a driver, just a vehicle. Although some may justify the inconvenience (personally, I find it reprehensible) of getting a ticket after loaning out your car to a friend, the situation goes from "annoyance" to potentially "pound-me-in-the-ass-prison" or "lose-everything-to-ex-wifey" when records like these suffice as "evidence" of the actual driver in court. I do not consider that even remotely acceptible, nor should any of us.
Logical follow on [was: Re: Invasion of Privacy] (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:INVASION OF PRIVACY (Score:4, Interesting)
I tried this once. I was in a downtown area and staying extra time and had to change hotels.
No car, just me and a bag. Credit card was close to maxxed and I was surfing ATMs until a payment got through.
The hotel wouldn't do it.
I gave my (real) name. No address (not their business) and offered to pay whatever deposit they needed. Not a fancy hotel, not a dive. Just a holiday inn class hotel. I needed a room and a desk. I was at the clients site for 15 hrs/day anyway.
What is wrong that you cannot travel in this country without identification papers?
Contrary to their words, there are ZERO laws that you must show state issued identification to travel. More, any 9/11 terrorists HAD IDs that were just fine. So it's not been an issue in the past. At least they dropped the useless "did you pack your own bags" question. the only incidents that ever occurred in that light were when a SPOUSE was trying to do in a partner.
Re:INVASION OF PRIVACY (Score:3, Funny)
Freedom of Choice. (Score:5, Insightful)
Convenience? Privacy?
Decisions, decisions.
This is not a problem, it's an opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)
This is just part of the cost (Score:2, Interesting)
No problem at all for me, my EZPass literally saves me hours a week since I'm on the NJ Turnpike regularly.
If I was planning on doing something seriously illegal, I'd just ditch the tag first. The cops who got caught claiming false overtime deserved it, not because they did wrong, but because they were stupid enough to think they weren't leaving an auditable trail behind them.
FIVRe:This is just part of the cost (Score:2, Informative)
If I was planning on doing something seriously illegal, I'd just ditch the tag first
I'm beginning to believe we will never be able to get people to understand that government snooping is worrisome even to law-abiding citizens. They came for the Jews, and I wasn't Jewish...
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the transportation authorities routinely delete their tracking info so that even a subpeona can't retrieve it.
Re:This is just part of the cost (Score:3, Interesting)
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
The whole McCarthyistic idea that people who have nothing t
Paper trail for IRS (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to work for a home contractor in the NYC suburbs. We crossed the Hudson river every day over the Tappan Zee bridge, and used EZ-Pass to pay the tolls. (Those out of the area, please be patient.) Now, contractors are notorious for taking cash payments whenever possible, and how much of this income they report in taxes is no doubt a small fraction.
So, what happens when any one of these contractors, or businessmen in similar circumstances, has their tax returns audited? How long will it be until EZ-Pass and other similar systems are used to "establish a pattern": meaning, evidence that you do business every day of the year, even though you report your income as seasonal, occasional or whatever?
And that's just taxes!!!
We're being watched, and the full implications of this are scary.
Re:Paper trail for IRS (Score:5, Informative)
With that said, I don't see how establishing a pattern that you went over the tappan zee every day as to show how much money are you actually bringing in. If you claiming you are only making $24k a year, when you live in a $300k house and drive your $30k truck over the Tappan Zee every day, there are a multitude of ways to figure it out.
Re:Paper trail for IRS (Score:3, Interesting)
That's a charming rationalization, from which I conclude that you have a bit of a guilty conscience about cheating on your own taxes.
Realistically, the IRS isn't going to go after someone who fudges by fifty bucks on their return. (At least, they're not going to waste the time of a live auditor on it-
Duh... (Score:3, Informative)
Dipshit didn't design it, you get one of those from E-Z Pass when you get your tag. Maybe he made one that looks a little less like an anti-static bag that a computer component would come in, bu it's not original.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Cell phones too (Score:5, Informative)
FasTrak (Score:5, Interesting)
The FAQ [ca.gov] for Fastrak mentions the mylar bags in relation to carpool lanes. Same principle for traffic conditions.
New level but... (Score:2, Insightful)
License plate cameras (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:License plate cameras (Score:5, Interesting)
Already been done in England.
Someone once recounted to me how a video-based speed camera would take a snapshot of the plate, do OCR on it...and, wait for it....do a lookup against the UK motor vehicle registry. About 500 feet down the road was a digital sign, and it would display personalized messages. As in, "Mr. Bean, you are going over the speed limit, please slow down".
I think he said it freaked out people enough(surprising, given how London has more security cameras than people -wanna see 1984? Go to the UK) that it was pulled.
Houston TransStar + Parking (Score:5, Interesting)
The Houston area version is called EZ-Tag. In addition to the "go through the toll booths" quickly aspect, data is fed into the Houston TranStar [tamu.edu] system along most of the major freeways.
The TranStar site is great because you can easily get an idea of traffic conditions before leaving your home/office. Interesting data includes historical speed graphs.
The automatic garage doors at our office building can also be set up to read the EZ-Tag and automatically open the doors when we pull up.
One Pass... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
a little thing I thought of (Score:5, Interesting)
Because of this push and the fact that various law enforcement / "civil defense" agencies aren't really "up with the times" (sheer incompetence and the apparant inability to convict someone in a "regular court" might be a better way of stating this), in order to keep up - these same folks HAVE to turn to technology and to to push through poorly written legislation (or interpret it in interesting ways)in order to make their "quota".
Dunno, I probably have no credibility, but my belief that law enforcement is embracing all these new things is not because they are new, but they are too incompetent to keep up their statistics using traditional means.
Metrocard vs EZPass (Score:5, Interesting)
With EZPass, you don't have the option to pay cash and remain anonymous - you MUST be linked to thing even though there's no good reason for this to be the ONLY option. I can understand that some people don't give a shit about privacy and want to billed, but I'm guessing that there's a LOT of people out there just like me (in the cashonly lane) who would rather prepay in cash and be left alone.
I'm wondering if it would be illegal to setup a EZPass proxy organization?
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Re:Metrocard vs EZPass (Score:3, Insightful)
Houston uses it for traffic tracking (Score:5, Informative)
Since the transponders are compatible with other Amtech/TransCore [transcore.com] systems, even vehicles from Oklahoma [pikepass.com], Dallas [ntta.org], and other cities help keep the map up to date. In fact, the Dallas and Houston tollway systems are now interconnected -- the same tag will let you cruise through both systems.
Of course, the privacy implications of this convenience have been obvious from the beginning. If you have the need or desire for true anonymity, though, you're not in the market for a (non-disposable) cell phone or a TollTag anyway.
Is this really that difficult? (Score:5, Funny)
How soon for personalized spam? (Score:3, Insightful)
IBM Commercial (Score:3, Insightful)
Incriminate yourself by not using the card... (Score:3, Interesting)
I think there may have been a Law & Order episode that revolved around this idea.
The system is sneaky by design (Score:3, Interesting)
Why do they insist on this devices being registered and what not? Why can't I anonymously buy and/or recharge it at a gas station? If it can be done with cell phones, it is certainly possible with these -- much simpler -- devices.
I suspect, it is so by design. We are dealing with the government, after all...
Ruling Innocent Men (Score:5, Insightful)
-- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
Re:Ofcourse, I prefer to remove my EZ-Pass (Score:3, Insightful)
EZPass uses RFID -- Radio Frequency Identification. The point is you're still being tagged unless you put it in an anti static bag or farraday cage. Your trick blocks any cameras from taking pictures of your EZ Pass, yes, but don't you think the cameras at many toll booths grab your license plate as
Re:I have a solution to this problem (Score:5, Informative)
Don't do anything wrong. Then you won't have to worry about the police tracking you.
That's remarkably naive. If politicians stopped making everything I'm currently doing illegal in a vain attempt to be seen to be doing something, or if police weren't so blindly zealous in their enforcement of laws that the public they are their to serve and protect doesn't want, then *maybe* I would have less to worry about. As it is however, if I change nothing in my behaviour, I'm fairly certain I would be arrested within 5 years - despite not breaking the laws of today.
It's the old story... make everyone a criminal, then you can detain anyone you want.
Re:I have a solution to this problem (Score:3, Insightful)
Like you keep your nose clean? Have you ever:
All
Re:People can be so silly (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a bit of a difference. Who I talk to, what I think, what websites I visit and what games I play on my Visor don't make much evidence that can be used to falsely implicate me in a crime.
Where I am, can be! Before you start talking about how far fetched it is, I'll tell you that I was threatened by a cop once with precisely that. Sgt. C