August 22, 2005. Copyright, 2004, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Chips to track licence plates

LONDON, August 22, Graphic News: The British government is preparing to test new high-tech licence plates containing radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips in order to track movements of vehicles.

The ubiquitous RFID is now found in more than 200 different technologies ranging from car clickers for central locking of vehicles to monitoring products on supermarket shelves, tracking prisoners on parole, and babies in hospitals.

The so-called e-plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, constantly transmits a vehicleÕs unique 128-bit encrypted identification code. The code -- which cannot be hacked -- can be read by a small detector whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host.

A single RFID reader can identify up to 200 vehicles fitted with e-plates moving at any speed at a distance of about 100 metres. The e-plate looks just like a standard plate, but its embedded chip cannot be seen or removed. It is self-powered with a battery life of up to 10 years.

The chips are more accurate than roadside cameras that photograph passing cars, although they can not identify who is driving the vehicle. 

The technology is already used in toll road systems in California and Texas. To use the San Francisco Fastrak toll system a user signs up -- providing name, address, and billing info, which is stored in a database. Each time they drive past the reader station they are billed or a credit is deducted from an account.

However, both legal and civil rights groups warn that e-plates may expand the ability of police to track individuals solely by the movement of their vehicles.

In Texas, for example, tollway authorities have been Òmaking printouts of the records of every time you pass through a toll booth [and] what time you passed through,Ó said Liz McIntyre, an RFID expert and author of a forthcoming book on ÒspychipsÓ. 

ÒThe government hasnÕt established a privacy policy for this, and people are not being informed that they are doing this. This is an instance of Big Brother on the highway.Ó
/ENDS

Sources: UPI, Hills Numberplates, Fastrak