Re: Federal program to monitor everyone on the road
There was a brief mention of this technology at the Crypto conference. I provided some pointers in a comment to an Ed Felten blog entry at http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000677.html#comments (scroll down to the 3rd comment). Dan Boneh et al presented a proposal for a group signature scheme so that the data collected would not be personally identifiable. The problem is that the data needs to be authenticated, otherwise rogue transmitters could send false data and perhaps cause traffic flow problems or even serious accidents. So they want to use some cryptographic method. Putting a common key in the whole system would make it too easy for rogues to get access to, would be unrevocable, and we are back to the rogue transmitter problem. Using individual certified keys is the default solution but has privacy problems: everyone would be constantly transmitting a cryptographically verifiable record of their driving patterns, speed, lane changing and who knows what else. With the group signature, everybody has a unique key but their transmissions are not bound to that key. And if a key gets scraped out and goes rogue, it can be revoked. This is supposed to provide flexibility, authentication, and privacy. In practice I am skeptical that society will choose to protect privacy at the expense of security. One optional feature of group signatures is a trusted party who can penetrate the anonymity and learn the identity of the author of a particular message. I suspect that any vehicle based embedded communications system will retain that capability, a sort of license plate in the virtual realm. The ability to track the paths of bank robbers and terrorists would be too inviting for society to give up, especially if the data is only available to government agents. Hal
Federal program to monitor everyone on the road
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/01/federal_program_to_m.html Federal program to monitor everyone on the road Interesting article about the Fed's plans to develop an all-knowing intelligent highway system. Most people have probably never heard of the agency, called the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office. And they haven't heard of its plans to add another dimension to our national road system, one that uses tracking and sensor technology to erase the lines between cars, the road and the government transportation management centers from which every aspect of transportation will be observed and managed. For 13 years, a powerful group of car manufacturers, technology companies and government interests has fought to bring this system to life. They envision a future in which massive databases will track the comings and goings of everyone who travels by car or mass transit. The only way for people to evade the national transportation tracking system they're creating will be to travel on foot. Drive your car, and your every movement could be recorded and archived. The federal government will know the exact route you drove to work, how many times you braked along the way, the precise moment you arrived -- and that every other Tuesday you opt to ride the bus. Link to actual story: http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/news_cover.html --Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--- + ^ + :Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. /|\ \|/ :They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country /\|/\ --*--:and our people, and neither do we. -G. W. Bush, 2004.08.05 \/|\/ /|\ : \|/ + v + :War is Peace, freedom is slavery, Bush is President. -
