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Re: Some Concerned About Privacy Implications of E-ZPass System

The potential for privacy problems is severe, but to their credit I

> don't think I've ever heard reports of abuses. Besides the > possibility of tracking people by tag use, there's the violation > tracking issue. If you drive through an E-ZPAss booth in NY with no > tag or an invalid tag, a camera takes a picture of your car and they > will ask the state DMV to look up the license plate number so they can > send you a ticket.

There's also that nagging problem where the system isn't perfect, and sometimes the RFID tags that are used don't work, or you have a malfunctioning toll lane. I just recently got hit with one of those. I'm an EZ Pass user, and my work ended up taking me to a remote podunk little rural area in southern NJ. When I got ON the turnpike at a major, heavily travelled and manned toll plaza, I passed through the EZ Pass lane and my tag registered just fine. Getting out to the sticks, I exited in a remote, unmanned and probably barely used toll plaza. Bzzzt! My transponder wasn't picked up and I was flashed a "GO: TOLL UNPAID" warning on way my off the turnpike. Lovely.

Later that day I called up the EZ Pass customer service number and told them what happened. "No problem," came the response. "As long as your license plate is resgistered on your EZ pass acount, we'll make the correction and everything should be fine."

Fast forward to yesterday. Assurances notwithstanding, I received a toll violation notice from the NJ Turnpike authority. Attached was that oh-so-incriminating photo of my car "skipping the toll," and a bill for $25.70 ... 70 cents for the actual toll, and $25.00 in "administrative fees," along with one of those typical scary-language legal threats that if I don't pay up within 10 days, I could be hit with additional fines "in excess of" $200. Clearly, they knew where my car got ON the turnpike in order to charge the correct toll amount, otherwise they would have assesed the maximum toll amount (which I believe is around $2.00). So you'd think they'd figure it out that my tag was successfully scanned there and obtain the correct billing data that way.

Grrr.

So now, I have to fill out a "dispute form," and indicate in writing why I feel I SHOULDN'T be hit with the fine. I've explained that I am an ex pass customer and had my tag in the car, and attached supporting documentation (tag serial number, account #, etc.). We'll see what kind of response I get.

E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

Reply to
Isaiah Beard
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It got rich because you made it rich.

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Not only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood. Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones in uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man had. We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who's standing up in America today. We have made a greater contribution and have collected less. Civil rights, for those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, means: "Give it to us now. Don't wait for next year. Give it to us yesterday, and that's not fast enough."

I might stop right here to point out one thing. Whenever you're going after something that belongs to you, anyone who's depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal. Understand that. Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to de

Reply to
Isaiah Beard

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