RFID Technology for Intelligent Transportation Systems

There is a lot of hype around RFID technology for vehicle registration being a threat to privacy because it enables automatic surveillance and tracking. But the reality is that vehicles can already be tracked due to license plates and video surveillance infrastructure.

In fact, RFID electronic identification would be more private than the physical license plate. Anyone can read the license plate, and we are obligated by law to keep it visible to anyone and everyone.

The RFID enabled license plate or windshield tag would have a number of privacy protection features and would be visible to only certain people- not any random person on the street.

RFID enabled license plates would be ready only by special readers- for example in toll lanes- and no personal data would need to be stored on the tag. In fact, the RFID tag can even protect or mask its identity. The tags response can be unique each time, and can be protected with cryptographic authentication.