I have to disagree with those who say this isn't news. It was news to me and will, I believe, be news to most others as well. The only time before this that I heard about using EZ pass for anything other than tolls was a few years ago when I read about some feasibility work on the concept of traffic flow optimization being done around Ithaca, NY.<p>I do wonder why they haven't been used yet to track speeding violations. Speed cameras are being installed in Manhattan. EZ passes are supposed to be used in one car only so it can't be lack of ability to isolate the user that's stopping it.<p>For years I've been keeping my EZ pass in a static electricity bag when I'm not anticipating going through tolls. I'll definitely continue to do so. At least until it becomes illegal.
Wait until people discover your FM car radio also leaks information. Besides the leaky iPod/SatRadio transmitters, the unit itself gives away the station frequency from the internal oscillator.<p>There's a company already sniffing radios on the road to determine listener demographics among other things.<p><a href="http://masscommandme.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/mobiltraks-listening-to-what-youre-listening-to-sort-of/" rel="nofollow">http://masscommandme.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/mobiltraks-lis...</a>
Oddly enough I just received an email from SunPass(Florida tolls) encouraging me to trade in my old battery operated transmitter that beeps when it's read for one that doesn't. They're even offering to foot the bill. Weird... maybe I'm just being a conspiracy theorist :)
As many have stated, this isn't news. There are all sorts of good and proper uses of toll-tags that aren't collecting tolls. There has never been any effort to hide that, nor should there be. The thing I have always been disturbed by WRT toll-tags is that toll-collecting entities flatly refuse to sell one that isn't attached to a person or a vehicle. There are opportunities for profit that have been ignored[1], and I expect that is probably because gov't entities want a high degree of certainty as to who is with the tag.<p>[1] - Prepaid toll-tags could be sold at vending machines for cash (business travelers, philanderers, etc.), but are not.
You'll pull my E-Z pass out of my cold dead hands.<p>This is the first piece of vehicle telematics I added when I got a new car. When I was stuck in a traffic jam at an off-ramp near Albany, I realized how I'd make it better for myself and other drivers if I got one.<p>It's particularly good that E-Z Pass uses the same technology as most other states in the Northeast so you can drive the Mass Pike and out to Maine or the other way to Ohio.
I had thought it was common knowledge that E-ZPasses were used to collect real-time traffic estimates; certainly I've known for years that i-Pass (the Illinois equivalent) was used for this purpose. Unfortunately, some quick googling does not appear to locate any information on this, so now I don't remember where I heard / read this in the first place.
His presentation also featured pictures he took of many NY police's personal cars with deliberately obscured license plates so they can't be automatically read (and other features like illegally too-tinted windows, etc).<p>*edit: found the presentation at <a href="https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-archives/dc-21-archive.html#pukingmonkey" rel="nofollow">https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc-archives/dc-21-archive....</a>
Your license plate is always visible, it's probably a nicer target for people interested in tracking you.<p>Search for "license plate" on <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/wikileaks-uncovers-trapwire-surveillance-faq-7000002513/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zdnet.com/wikileaks-uncovers-trapwire-surveillanc...</a>
This reminds of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow that I just read two weeks ago: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/954674.Little_Brother" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/954674.Little_Brother</a>
> The DoT was not forthcoming about what exactly was read from the passes or how long geolocation information from the passes was kept.<p>Listen up kids. Even if your goals are entirely pure and innocent, this sort of BS just makes you look shady. If you wanna do traffic analysis, sanitize your data ASAP, and purge it as soon as you can, and then when people ask, you can answer questions like this with a clear conscience.
In California, our toll transponders (FasTrak) are spuriously read at the LAX airport, merely for tracking reasons, not for billing.<p>Interesting reverse-engineering of FasTrak transponders in 2008: <a href="http://rdist.root.org/2008/08/07/fastrak-talk-summary-and-slides/" rel="nofollow">http://rdist.root.org/2008/08/07/fastrak-talk-summary-and-sl...</a>
This isn't news, and hasn't been hidden. EZ pass readers are plainly visible all over the place, including on the BQE in NYC and other places in NY. They give you an ESD bag to put your transmitter in.<p>As part of 511, state DOTs also purchase cell tower data to estimate speed on highways. My understanding is that is where the Google Maps traffic indicators come from.
Little-known, but publicly available, information: The EZ-Pass was originally developed by JPMorgan Chase (my employer) for use with a different client.<p>Just last month, JPMC announced that its patent collection had reached 500, with our patent on EZ-Pass being one of our most successful, and something we still receive licensing fees on.<p><a href="https://www.jpmorgan.com/cm/cs?pagename=JPM_redesign/JPM_Content_C/Generic_Detail_Page_Template&cid=1320519245545&c=JPM_Content_C" rel="nofollow">https://www.jpmorgan.com/cm/cs?pagename=JPM_redesign/JPM_Con...</a>
IMO, this is actually pretty awesome. Maybe in the future, we can produce new EZPasses that do the same thing, except more privacy-oriented: a pass that reports different Tag IDs to traffic monitoring equipment, but keeps reporting the same Tag ID for 1 hour. Or maybe a piece of hardware that can intercept the EZPass signal on its way to the traffic monitoring equipment.<p>Everyone hates traffic and loves complaining about it, but I personally haven't seen a lot of work being done to <i>solve</i> it. And yeah, having people take public transportation helps with congestion, but you're not actually solving anything by doing that, only working around the problem. Maybe it's because I've never worked with any DOTs.
Is there any way to install a switch to kill the tag when you don't plan on using it? If that's possible, how difficult would it be to control this on/off switch with a spare smart phone based on approved GPS location?
I can't find details of his hack, but I am curious if his detector detects actual read events (when his device responds with its ID) or if it is just an RF power detector. Is there a link to a technical description?
Your location in a public place is not a secret. It is not legally protected. This is well established by multiple precedents.<p>Heck, FBI agents can legally place a tracking device on your car, <i>without a warrant</i> if they do so while your car is in a public place (<a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/03/federal-judge-rules-fbi-didnt-need-warrant-to-plant-gps-tracking-device/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/03/federal-judge-rules-fb...</a>).
This looks like a potential solution:<p><a href="http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/112" rel="nofollow">http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/112</a><p>Don't know where to buy just the shield though...
Yet again, we arrive at a, "could" story, and not a "does" story.<p>The NSA "could" have you arrested for a crime you didn't commit by sharing intel it's collected about you! The NYPD "could" use your E-ZPass to track your movements through NYC! Google "could" access your Wi-Fi password as it's synced from your Android device!<p>I think people forget sometimes that 1984 was a work of fiction, and never actually happened.