Today your phone, tomorrow your car

Declan McCullagh points out that the DMV may be planning to pick up where the NSA leaves off:

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed to track vehicles wherever they go… Details of the tracking systems vary. But the general idea is that a small GPS device, which knows its location by receiving satellite signals, is placed inside the vehicle.

There is little indication that any privacy protections are being considered. How will this travel data be stored? For how long? Who will have access to it, and for what reasons? How will the data be protected from hackers and identity thieves?

There are rational economic reasons for doing this—for instance, it makes sense that the heaviest users of a roadway would be expected to should a proportionate burden of the cost of its repair and upkeep. But with little or no regard for the rights of Americans in this increasingly paranoid culture, proposals like this bear careful watching.