Today in the signal jammer Shop, we would like to highlight the issue of protecting the privacy of drivers in the United States. Our government’s recent activities are looking rather suspicious and we believe they should be discussed. You’ve probably heard of the idea of equipping all vehicles with electronic license plates that can be remotely configured and controlled.
California Governor Jerry Brown is ready to sign the Senate-approved law, which aims to equip all cars in California with electronic license plates. Technically, such an upgrade is not really difficult, the electronic license plate is a simple display that attaches to the front and rear bumper of the car. However, this solution can open up far-reaching possibilities, e.g. B. not only the display of service data such as the number or the status “kidnapped”, but also of ads and similar things. The information displayed is remotely controlled and downloaded by the responsible authorities via a GPRS channel that uses GSM frequencies.
Well, from the point of view of the authorities, the idea is brilliant. It not only brings additional money into the budget of ads, but also the fact that these signs are harder to forge. The third point is that the solution will significantly reduce the cost of vehicle registration. The annual postal cost of registering the vehicle and shipping the papers is approximately $ 20 million. This sum can be saved if all data is downloaded via the mobile Internet.
But those were positive moments, there are many problems with these plates that we would like to show. First, there is no longer any need to track these signs via speed cameras. These signs can collect and send information about speed limit violations themselves. Another problem here is that as long as GSM frequencies are used to transmit data, this plate can be tracked via a cell phone tower triangulation. We believe that these two problems are a gross violation of privacy.
The problem is that the information we collect is not declared anywhere and we do not know what data we receive from it. The Senate probably did this to avoid suspicious moments. They probably remember the NSA espionage scandal and want to avoid the same. The implementation of electronic number plates initially only affects service vehicles such as UPS and FedEX. No private vehicles are included in the first phase. We hope that all of the information we collect is declared so that people at least know what private data they share.
Another data protection problem that affects drivers is RFID-based driving licenses. We had a question about those in our Wiki QA service and the problem with them is really important. This makes New York the second US state to offer RFID-based driver’s licenses after Washington. It is obvious that these licenses will be quite practical when passing customs and highway tolls. All data about the driver is read remotely. The problem here is that all of your private data is sent over an unprotected and unencrypted channel and can be intercepted by third parties.
We see that driver privacy is now at risk, so we have to protect it ourselves. To block both electronic license plates and RFID licenses, we recommend using a universal portable jammer with adapter for the car lighter. Your privacy is a top priority these days. Make sure it is protected.