I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about the Easy Pass system you see on most modern highways. The speaker was talking about some of the common things everyone knows about the easy pass system. Some of these things included it’s ease of use, how much time it can save, and the financial advantages it can provide with volume discounts. An additional topic came up which I had never thought of before: privacy.

The interviewer asked the speaker to discuss some of the privacy concerns people have with the Easy Pass system. I personally had never thought about the subject, and was very interested to hear more. The speaker explained that the Easy Pass system tracks data as it relates to each person who uses the system. Every time a user drives through an Easy Pass toll, their Easy Pass account is deducted by the appropriate amount and a record of their driving through that particular toll and that particular lane is tracked.

While I don’t personally care of ‘Big Brother’ knows where I’ve been traveling, I can see the reason for some people to be concerned. The speaker, who may have been an Easy Pass representative, said that the data is generally used to catch people who go through Easy Pass lanes with a delinquent account. Easy Pass tracks the name on the account as well as the license plate to make it easy for authorities to find toll violators. These people are then charged with passing through the toll without payment.

Personally, I am not so sure that is all Easy Pass would use the data only to find toll violators. I would say that if law enforcement went to easy pass to request toll data on a particular individual, Easy Pass would not hesitate to gather information for them.

What are your thoughts?