From: Dave Emery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: EZ Pass and the fast lane .... User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [...] >
Perhaps someone more paranoid (or subversive) than I am will follow up and actually build such a monitor and report whether there are any interogations at OTHER than the expected places...
Here in california, the FasTrak transponders (bridge toll, carpool lane) are put to a "seconday use". 511.org has set up transponder antennas at certain points on the freeways, always one each pointing at each lane, to calculate average travel times. They say they "scramble" the ID-Number and don't store it for long.
Here's my research mail:
--
Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 16:35:31 -0700 From: "511" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: new antennas on 101
Thanks for your inquiry.
The antennas are part of the 511 Traveler Information system. We use them to calculate speeds on Bay Area freeways so that we can provide up-to-the-minute driving times from point A to point B on our 511 phone and web systems. It also allows us to provide how fast traffic is moving in conjunction with incidents. For example, we can say there is an accident at University Ave in Berkeley and traffic is moving between 15 and 30mph.
The technology does use FasTrakTM transponders. The antennas read the transponder, scramble the number, and then send the scrambled number to our system to calculate the driving times and speeds. At the end of the day we throw away the scrambled numbers and encryption codes so that there is no way for anyone to come back to us in the future and ask for numbers to track individuals. If FasTrakTM customers are still uncomfortable with our set-up, we have provided every FasTrakTM customer with a bag that prevents the transponder from being read by our antennas.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. Thanks.
>>> Christian Wolff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 04/20/04 02:24PM >>> Hi,
i noticed new antennas, one each pointing at each lane, on freeway 101 in the bay area. They are mounted to existing sign bridges at the cesar chavez exit, near SFO and in palo alto (as far as i spotted them).
I suppose they are some kind of RFID antenna, e.g from the FasTrak system. If so, what is their purpose? To keep track of movements of FasTrak customers? A general traffic pattern survey?
And, if it's not FasTrak, is this a field test for another RFID device, maybe even mandatory, as mentioned here?: "Automotive RFID Gets Rolling" http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/866/1/1/
I have already contacted the FasTrak customer service, but they just referred me to you.
Thank you in advance for your response.
Sincerely, Christian Wolff, San Francisco.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]