LTO's Spychips might intrude upon motorists' privacy- Maza

Rep.Liza Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party today questioned the plan of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to tag vehicles with microchips using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology which it claims would enhance and speed up the vehicle registration process while providing the authorities and the public fast identification of vehicles.

“This technology raises fears that it might be used to violate the right to privacy of individuals. LTO’s microchips might in turn be used as spychips for government’s surveillance operations to those critical of the current administration,” Maza said.

According to the LTO, it will begin tagging next month all vehicles with radio frequency identification (RFID) labels that will enable it to identify and know everything about a specific vehicle with the speed of electronic computing. The sticker contains a microchip storing vehicle information that is reportedly tamper-proof and can only be “read” by authorized scanners of the LTO and the police.

“Apparently, LTO will act like a Big Brother. It can be used as a spying device since radio waves from a microchip will identify all information of the vehicle on real-time basis,” Maza said.

Maza stressed that LTO must explain their plan to the public and it needs to be transparent as to how this technology will work and what kind and level of information it will get.

As to the cost of this technology, Maza also scored the LTO for again passing the burden to the people as motorists will have to pay a one-time tagging fee of P350 when they register their vehicles.

“Dagdag bayarin at gastos na naman ito na papasanin ng mga motorista. Kailangang ipaliwanag ng LTO ang planong ito at dahil mukhang mga malalaking kumpanya lang din ang kikita at makikinabang nito,” Maza said. ###