RFID Tags in British License Plates

[lady lib]

WIRED NEWS
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.

"We definitely have an interest in testing an RFID-tagged license plate," said Jerry Dike, chairman of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and director of the Vehicle Titles and Registration Division of the Texas Department of Transportation.

***
"It's too easy for (RFID license plates) to become a back-door surveillance tool," said Jim Harper, director of information studies at libertarian think tank the Cato Institute and a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

MORE

LINK
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,68429,00.html

Here we go...the next step in watching our every move.

[neweurope]

1. And if the Britons are content with them the rest of EU will follow.

Jesus. And just how far away would "more than 300 feet away" be?

------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Taxloss]

5. We're not cowards. We're fighting this tooth and nail.

Google NO2ID to learn more.

[neweurope]

9. So do the Germans cower to theiur government. Tell them

it makes them "safer" and they'll agree to anything and everything.

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Remember Fallujah

Bush tol The Hague!

[lady lib]

7. It's one thing to have a GPS in your car

which you can choose not to have, but you're required to have a license plate. My concern is that as the RFID technology improves it will become an effective and omnipresent tracking system.

[lady lib]

20. I think it's reasonable to be concerned that

as the U.K. goes, so too (possibly) goes the rest of the EU. One doesn't necessitate the other, but it should be in the back of everyone's mind.

Just today we've got this radio tag story, and now The Guardian has a story about secret courts. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1688829&mesg_id=1688829

[dbeach]

2. tags..

with microchips
and its a brave new world run by the controllers
and it may not be in the interest of scurity from future terrorist attacks..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4281080&mesg_id=4281080

[lady lib]

4. Here's background info on RFID

http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/what_is_rfid.asp

[Fescue4u]

6. two words.....* Microwave oven*

If you are ever forced to use an RFID tag against your better judgement (and license tags would be an example), just run it through your microwave for 30 seconds.

That'll render it inert.

If anyone asks you why it doesnt "read". Just shrug your shoulders and say "i dunno how that stuff works, proably got wet or something"

[lady lib]

8. That's why I love DU!

There's ALWAYS someone who KNOWS. Thank you. I'll bet everyone who reads your post will remember it.

Edit: Questions. Do you remove the tag and put it in the microwave? Wouldn't metal start a fire?

[Fescue4u]

17. Proably

It'll depend I guess on how they attacked the tag to the license plate.

Just putting raw metal in the microwave is normally a bad idea, although you could proably shield the rest of the plate with somesort of soft substance to absort the microwaves, and leave just the rfid tag exposed.

[lockdown]

10. Something I read about mobile phones the other day,

while on the subject of the surveillance state.

If ordered to do so, mobile telephone operators can also tap any calls, but more significantly they can also remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner’s knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call, giving security services the perfect bugging device. "We have inadvertently started carrying our own trackable ID card in the form of the mobile phone," said Sandra Bell, head of the homeland security department at the Royal United Services Institute.

Scary. That was in the Financial Times but it's subscription only now. There's a reprint here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. Wow, that is surprising

It would become fairly obvious, though, I'd have thought - the battery would run down quickly if the phone was permanently transmitting; and I'd wonder about the sound quality of a mobile phone microphone in a pocket. I'd also wonder if 'all handsets' can be changed thus - older ones aren't so programmable.

On the subject of the RFID chips on number plates - slightly worrying, but visual automatic number plate readers can already be installed by the state (as used for congestion charge, and a few speed traps, I believe). So in some ways this doesn't actually advance surveillance on us much. I'm concerned I can't find anything about this in the British media, though.

[lockdown]

19. Good points

Newer generations and models only surely, one good excuse to carry an old brick model (if you can still use them, some older phones can't be used anymore..). I don't know how much power transmission would need, but if it's such a problem they presumably use it in tandem with other surveillance to just switch on when required.

If a revolutionary new type of battery comes from nowhere I'll be glad of it, but I'll still get my tinfoil out. :)

[lady lib]

21. Lockdown, you really should start a thread with this.

It's important.

[lockdown]

23. Feel free

to start one if you think it warrants it! :)

All I know about it is what's in that article.

[earth mom]

11. This is awful...big brother is running hog wild!

It has to stop!

[seemslikeadream]

12. RFID

[Eloriel]

14. What am I looking at here?

I don't understand this. Maybe I'm just dense -- ??

[seemslikeadream]

15. Sorry Eloriel

my bad :spank:

http://chris-miller.org/blog/index.php/archives/2005/02/10/microchip-hands/


:hi:

[Bassic]

13. Big Brother is fucking watching indeed.....

[Ms. Clio]

16. I don't understand why freepers and fundies don't go ballistic

on this kind of thing. Obviously the next step in this technology is microchipping people, just like my pets. Wouldn't that truly be the mark of the beast?

[lildreamer316]

22. An you can kiss

my lily white butt if you think I will ever allow that on my car.
Live free or die.

[LibertyorDeath]

24. This is a very slippery slope

Welcome to 1984