SALON

Friday, Feb 22, 2013 6:05 PM UTC

Golden Gate surveillance

Prepare to be tracked: Cash will no longer be accepted at the toll gates of America's most famous bridge VIDEO

By

Topics: Video, Surveillance, Privacy, Golden Gate Bridge, tracking, Fastrak,

Golden Gate surveillance (Credit: Radoslaw Lecyk via Shutterstock)

Another lurch forward into the all-surveillance-all-the-time society. As of March 27, the Golden Gate Bridge will no longer accept cash for tolls. If you want to cross between San Francisco and the Marin Headlands, better get your Fastrak account activated now.

Rest assured, if you don’t have a Fastrak account, or you’re a tourist or driving a rental car, you will still be allowed to cross the bridge. There are several ways to set up a one-time payment via credit card online either before or after driving across the Bay. And if you just whiz through the gates footloose and fancy free, Golden Gate Bridge cameras will automatically snap a picture of your license plate and mail the registered owner of your car an invoice.

So what do we think about this? I am not the kind of privacy absolutist who shuns all forms of electronic tagging as the mark of the beast. I’ve been a Fastrak user for many years and I love its convenience. I also appreciate that moving as many drivers to Fastrak as possible will speed up traffic on the Golden Gate. If I were a Golden Gate Bridge commuter, I’d probably be singing hosannas of praise.

But it still seems to me that there is a meaningful difference between presenting people with the voluntary option of adopting a technology that makes tracking their movements easier, and requiring that everyone get an RFID chip embedded in their frontal cortex, er, I mean, on their car’s dashboard.

Fastrak acknowledges such concerns, albeit ludicrously, by providing a supposedly “anonymous” option to pay for a Fastrak account with cash. But the very page that offers that option notes that if you don’t keep enough funds in your account to pay a toll, an invoice will be mailed to you afterward. A uniquely identifiable electronic tag tied to your license plate doesn’t quite fit my definition of anonymous.

Again, in the great scheme of privacy violations, this is hardly an egregious travesty. It’s transparent and solves a real problem. But it’s also a reminder of just how much we’re being watch, and photographed, and tracked, whether on our phones or in our cars, on the highway or in front of our computer.

\

Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.

Next Article

You Might Also Like

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Serena William in an emotional moment during the final women's French Open match against Russia's Maria Sharapova. Williams won 6-4, 6-4, while Rafael Nadal defeated fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the men's finals on Sunday.
    AP/David Vincent

  • Ongoing anti-government protests at Taksim Square. Five people have died and thousands have been injured since the protests began on May 31. On Friday, Turkey's government agreed to suspend redevelopment plans for Gezi Park, which initially sparked the protests, until a court rules on its legality.
    AP/Vadim Ghirda

  • Billy Porter is all heart and "sole" at a performance of the Cyndi Lauper-scored "Kinky Boots," which won the Tony Award for Best musical on Sunday night.
    AP/The O+M Company, Matthew Murphy

  • A chemical plant explosion and fire in Louisiana on Thursday morning killed a 29-year-old and injured 73 more. The cause of the fire is still undetermined.
    AP/Gerald Herbert

  • So much for pie-throwing loyalty. Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch and third wife Wendy Deng announced they are filing for divorce on Thursday after 14 years of marriage. The pair are pictured at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles this year.
    AP/Matt Sayles

  • Ariel Castro, accused of holding three women captive in his house for roughly a decade, walks into a Cleveland courtroom on Wednesday. Castro, 52, pleaded not guilty to hundreds of charges that include rape and kidnapping.
    AP/Tony Dejak

  • Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate, Hasan Rowhani, campaigned with banners on the streets of Tehran on Wednesday in anticipation of the Iranian presidential elections on Friday.
    AP/Ebrahim Noroozi

  • People watch from the side of the road as a flame-fighting plane passes over the Black Forest area north of Colorado Springs. A raging fire which has been burning since midweek has destroyed more than 360 homes and killed two.
    AP/Brennan Linsley

  • A restaurant in Dunabogdany, Hungary, is roof-deep in floodwaters spilling from the River Danube. Heavy rainfalls this week continued to flood major rivers and lakes in Germany, Austria, Switzerland the Czech Republic and Hungary.
    AP/MTI, Balazs Mohai

  • A gas mask-sporting demonstrator walks past Portuguese graffiti on a bank which reads "Fascist government." Thousands took to the streets São Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday to violently protest a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fares, while similar protests took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Porte Alegre in southern Brazil.
    AP/Brennan Linsley

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

More Related Stories

Comments

 46 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( settings | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves": Growing up primate

Recommendations