Covered at Reason 24/7: Automated Tolls Track Everybody Crossing Golden Gate Bridge

You have to run an
intrusive  security gauntlet to board an airplane. Gone are
the days of traveling Amtrak anonymously — the nation's skanky,
money-losing, publicly owned railroad now requires photo
identification to buy a ticket. You even have to show ID for most
bus lines. But, at least you can get behind the wheel of your car
and travel the roads with some anonymity. You can cruise— What's
that? Oh, never mind. Starting this week, almost everybody crossing
the Golden Gate bridge must submit to identification by either RFID
or by license-plate recognition cameras hooked into the Department
of Motor Vehicles database. There is a provision for
anonymous FasTrak accounts, but it's neither convenient nor widely
advertised.

Happy motoring.

From the
Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Yesterday, the Golden Gate Bridge switched to all-electronic
tolling. As of March 27, drivers entering San Francisco no longer
have the option to pay the $6 cash toll to a human toll collector.
Unfortunately, all of the bridge's electronic payment options track
the identities of those paying the toll, and all represent a loss
of privacy for visitors or commuters entering San Francisco by car.
The current implementation of electronic tolling here (and
elsewhere) is unnecessarily privacy-invasive and represents a
missed opportunity to collect tolls electronically in more
privacy-friendly ways.

Since March 27, motorists entering San Francisco have three
different payment options. One option involves recognizing an RFID
token in the motorist's vehicle, while the remaining two use a
camera to photograph and recognize the license plate. (A cute new
animation from the bridge operator explains the options, though not
their privacy consequences.)

Don't miss Reason's coverage of the spreading use of
license-plate
cameras on roads hither and yon in this great, non-anonymous
country.

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