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Connecting To Unsecured Bluetooth Car Systems To Monitor Traffic Flow

Posted by Unknown on from the drive-slowly-for-maximum-confusion dept.

New submitter TheTerseOne writes "The Columbian, the local newspaper of Vancouver (not BC), Washington (not DC) is reporting that local county traffic officials plan on spending $540k of government money to monitor traffic by connecting to vehicles' Bluetooth systems (whose owners/drivers have left them discoverable). The county claims that, although this sounds 'creepy' and 'like Big Brother,' there is no cause for concern. The specific brand of the system is not mentioned, but similar systems have already been the subject of security alerts." County officials note that they are stripping out part of the MAC, and the system is intentionally designed not to be useful for law enforcement to locate specific devices.

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Halifax too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Halifax just did the same thing (though only spent 43k). Only release was the tender process, and no acknowledgement after repeated requests for information.

  2. CFAA? by cob666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Connecting to a computer system without the consent of the owner is still a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and a felony the last time I checked.

    --
    Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
  3. Sampling Bias? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Won't this introduce sampling bias, as non-Bluetooth cars are excluded from traffic monitoring? Highways with richer travelers will get more funding than the poor parts of town.

  4. Bluetooth, shmoothooth by psydeshow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This seems really complicated. Why not just track the RFID signature generated by the various parts of the car which are tagged? Tires, replacement parts, items in the trunk, ID badges on the passengers....