Jamming and privacy problem

["E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

	It looks like one non-political solution to this problem would be
a gadget to jam the receiver so it can't activate the transponder or,
alternately, receive the transponder's signal. Cryptographic relevance?
They might start doing something tricky with frequencies, etcetera.
	-Allen	

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Date:       Sat, 03 Feb 96 10:21:11 EST
From:       Computer Privacy Digest Moderator  <comp-privacy@uwm.edu>
To:         Comp-privacy@uwm.edu
Subject:    Computer Privacy Digest V8#012

Computer Privacy Digest Sat, 03 Feb 96              Volume 8 : Issue: 012

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 01 Feb 1996 19:25:04 -0800 (PST)
From: Phil Agre <pagre@weber.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Universal Tracking of Road Traffic

I have here the most amazing document.  It is a Request for Proposals
(number 95-7, dated January 1996) from the State of California Air
Resources Board (Research Division, 2020 L Street, Sacramento CA 95814)
entitled "Incorporation of Radio Transponders into Vehicular On-Board
Diagnostic Systems".  The ARB wants someone to build transponders and
receivers that allow computers to automatically poll cars to determine
if their emissions systems are failing, in the process accumulating a
database of the cars' locations on particular dates and times.

According to the RFP, by 1996 new cars and light trucks in California
are required to have onboard systems that illuminate a dashboard light
if the emissions systems are malfunctioning.  Since the appearance of
this light does not ensure that the car's owner will get the emissions
system fixed, the ARB is proposing that new cars and light trucks
starting in the year 2000 (it doesn't say all of them, but it does say
1,000,000 of them) be required to include transponders that can
broadcast the car's VIN number, the emissions system fault codes, the
vehicle's location at the time of the query, and a status code.  The
receivers are supposed to be capable of automatically polling the
"fleet" of cars equipped with transponders and storing in a database
the following information: date and time of current and last query,
VIN, status and fault codes, and "vehicle location (to the zip code
level, and city)".  The contractor also "shall produce a public service
video documenting the system and explaining the concept and the
benefits of such a transponder-assisted approach to enhancing the
present I/M [Inspection and Maintenance] program."

In case it's not clear, the ARB is envisioning a system under which
cars sold in California will be required to incorporate a device ("no
larger than a pack of cigarettes") that the state can use to track its
whereabouts at all times.  This plan poses a greater threat to
individual privacy than automatic toll collection or any other plan
currently under development for non-commercial transport informatics,
so far as I know.  Environmental concerns are real, and the air in Los
Angeles is a crime, but plenty of means are available for alleviating
air pollution without constructing the technological groundwork for an
authoritarian society.

--
Phil Agre

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End of Computer Privacy Digest V8 #012
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