Big Brother Will be Watching You Drive

Wherever and whenever you're going, if you're British, and if things go smoothly, in America soon thereafter.

The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.

Officials in the United States say they'll be closely watching the British trial as they contemplate initiating their own tests of the plates, which incorporate radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags to make vehicles electronically trackable.

[...]

So-called "active" RFID tags, like the one in the e-Plate made by the U.K. firm Hills Numberplates, have built-in batteries, allowing them to broadcast data much farther than the small passive tags used to track inventory at retail stores.

As usual with every intrusive new technological measure being proposed by governments these days, the scheme is being promoted as a means of - yes, you guessed it - fighting terrorism:

Proponents argue that making such RFID tags mandatory and ubiquitous is a logical move to counter the threat of terrorists using the roadways, and that it will scoop up insurance and registration scofflaws in the process.

If the government can't follow your every turn of the wheel, the terrorists will have won! Then there's also the other good old standby - i.e, "we're just thinking of the children":

"We see tremendous advantages to the (e-Plate) for everything from verifying registration and insurance to Amber (missing child) Alerts," said Dike.

Ah, how could we ever refuse anything done for the children? They're our future, don't you know, so any sacrifice for their sake is clearly worthwhile ...

Civil libertarians don't object to an RFID automatic toll-collection system that "anonymizes" vehicles in databases once a transaction is completed. But they doubt the government -- given its thirst for intelligence -- will use such privacy-protection measures. From a law-enforcement perspective, "there is no reason to have privacy for anything," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

But of course - how would they go about catching terrorists, "insurance and registration scofflaws" and child molesters speeding along the highway without personally identifying information?

Couple a development like this with the already ubiquitous TV cameras on the streets and the planned introduction of ID cards, and the only thing separating Britain from the total surveillance portrayed in Zamyatin's We will be the absence of plexiglass walls permitting everyone to be under the permanent surveillance of Guardians - but I'm sure some hardworking civil servant in Whitehall is working on that final step as well.

[Via Bruce Schneier.]

Comments

[eoin]

i'd be more worried about how the US - rather than Britain - uses this technology actually - in any case Mr dice let the cat outta the bag:

""We see tremendous advantages to the (e-Plate) for everything from verifying registration and insurance to Amber (missing child) Alerts," said Dike."

No mention of terrorism there, but I suspect terrorists may foil the police in any case by nefariouly keeping their registration and insurance up to date.

[Abiola Lapite]

"I suspect terrorists may foil the police in any case by nefariouly keeping their registration and insurance up to date."

The cheek of the shifty buggers!

[Julian Elson]

I was hoping that the chip would have some other neat feature, like maybe you could set up a "car account" with it, and it would automatically signal to toll roads, parking garages, and car ferries to let you through and send a bill to your account, like a more universalized EZPass system, but no, it's just a pure tracking device.

Darnit, if I'm going to live in a dystopian surveillance society, I at least want some neat fringe benefits.