[Avenger42]

> 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.

That conflicts somewhat with the article:

> Notably, the fact that E-ZPasses will be used as a tracking device outside of toll payment, is not disclosed anywhere that I could see in the terms and conditions.

I'm fine with you doing whatever you disclose you're going to be doing, even if it seems invasive, but the key there is the disclosure.

[fnordfnordfnord]

That's the author's experience in NYC. I rarely go there so I cannot refute what he says. But, in Houston, TXDOT and TTI[1] have been on TV and in other media bragging about their sophisticated data collection and how good a job they've done shortening my commute.

http://tti.tamu.edu/

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/aviinfo/avi-hou.html

>I'm fine with you doing whatever you disclose you're going to be doing, even if it seems crazy like "wherever you are in downtown Manhattan, you won't be able to go two blocks without hitting a reader somewhere", but the key there is the disclosure.

I am happy to see productive uses of technology. But, I'd prefer it if the data were required to be anonymized pretty close to the collection point. I think the gov't should almost always disclose its activities, especially in direct interactions with citizens. I'd like to see things like license plates going away and replaced with the transponder tags, but with the tags also reporting when they are accessed, and by whom.

[Avenger42]

I don't think we disagree here. I'm also in Houston, and though I haven't read them recently, I'm happy to know that the terms & conditions for my EZ tag properly lay out what they'll use it for. If the New York tags similarly expressed the ability of the companies to use the tags everywhere, I'd be completely in agreement.

> I'd like to see things like [...] the tags also reporting when they are accessed, and by whom.

Agreed; I already get a monthly letter saying "here's every place you went where you were charged a toll". How hard would it be do the same (at least on the website) with all the places your car was tagged-but-not-tolled?

[fnordfnordfnord]

>I don't think we disagree here.

I wasn't as careful as I should have been in my other post.

>I'm also in Houston, and though I haven't read them recently,

Pshhhbt, me neither!

>I'm happy to know that the terms & conditions for my EZ tag properly lay out what they'll use it for.

That stupid thing is probably as vague and broad as it can be. I based my statements on news reporting I'd seen, and having been on the TXDOT and traffic.tamu.edu websites[1] where the stuff was explained.

[1] In fairness to mortals, that is kind of like the bottom of a filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign outside the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."