EZ-Pass Is Monitoring You At More Than Just Toll Booths

So, I stumbled across this story by accident as was completely alarmed. Raise your hand if you have an EZ-Pass stuck to your window. OK, put your arms down. You my friend are being tracked! That easy pass is sending out your info all over the place to be stored for "record keeping".

A electronics hobbyist whose handle is Puking Monkey took his EZ-Pass apart and wired a toy and battery to the RFID unit. The toy cow lit up and mooed every time the device was read. While taking a drive around NYC with his newly modified EZ-Pass he was being read by more than just toll booths! Watch this:

Now what does this mean you ask? Well, when you signed up for EZ-Pass you should recall that they asked for your credit card number, address, phone number, vehicle year, make and model and your plate number. So when you pass a toll booth you auto pay right? I have no idea how much of that information is stored in the actual device on your windshield, but I would have to say that you probably don't have to worry about your card number getting stolen or it would've happened already. Anyone can purchase and RFID reader and with a little internet knowledge can learn to use it.

However, local authorities and higher officials can just pull up logs on local roadways and find out when, where and what time you've been there! Freedom to travel while not being tracked is out the window! Moonlighting at the competitor for a better job or extra money? A private investigator with the correct people contacts can find out where you've been!

Now lets look at the broader, bigger picture with a hypothetical situation:

Let's say I own a beer outlet. I have just received a phone call from a salesman saying for $XX.XX a month he'll give me the mailing address of every car that passes my place on a daily basis. I buy the info package. Now... you travel past Birdsall's Beer Emporium on your trek to the daycare on a daily basis.  Now all of a sudden you are getting mail from my store with the specials and see a sign out front That says "Hey (your name), Birdsall Light is on sale! Come in for a cold one!"

Scary right? The question you should be asking yourself is... how far can it go?

It's a pain in the rear, but I'd  take it off the windshield and put it in the grey bag it came in, wrap it in tin foil and leave it in the glovebox if I were you!