News about the Land Transportation Office (LTO) implementing RFID tagging on all motor vehicles this October has been making the rounds of the evening news today.
When I first heard about it on the car’s radio, I was surprised — wow, the LTO is going hi-tech. That should be nice. However, some sectors are blocking this move claiming privacy issues.
Nevertheless, from a technical point of view, I think this move by LTO offers more advantages than disadvantages.
This technology is not really new to Philippine highways. The ePass that thousands of cars use to drive thru tollways (NLEX and SLEX) is powered by RFID.
This October 2009, the Department of Foreign Affairs will also implement RFID on all new Passports (ePassport). If you renew your old green passport, it will be replaced with a brown RFID-tagged passport.
Private schools are already using RFID in student IDs for borrowing books and also gates in the campus have RFID ID Scanners (e.g. Claret School of Quezon City and Colegio de San Juan de Letran).
The clothes that you buy in Bench and other apparel stores are also tagged with RFIDs. Those steel gates at the entrance serve as an RFID scanner.
If the same technology is used for all registered cars, it could be a convenience in so many ways:
- Renewals of vehicle registration could be made faster/easier.
- It could also be used to easily identify stolen vehicles.
- All cars can be readily equipped with ePass too — the lines would be faster at the toll gates especially during peak hours. This can also be implemented in parking lots too.
- No need to go to LTO to pay traffic violations. Your RFID could be charged directly (contactless payment) after citation — no more confiscation of driver’s license. That could practically eradicate kotong (what’s the English equivalent?) since traffic cops can no longer blackmail you into going to a 3-day driving seminar in exchange for a small tip.
RFID works like a short-distance radio signal, normally around 10 feet or 3 meters. As such, it cannot be efficiently used to track objects the way GPS can. The issue about privacy is a legitimate concern though.
I still think it’s a good move, though. From reports I’ve heard, the tags will cost motorists around Php400 a pop. I thought that’s a bit expensive since RFID tags are really cheap nowadays.
timing na timing sa 2010 election para pondo ng mga bata ni gma dagdag gastos at bagong kita na naman ng mga fixer
I agree to a lot of what was just said! RFID is no question a good technology but it depends on what you want to achieve for using such technology. If this will be used to store data about the vehicle…. GREAT! If the owner’s informaton is also included in that RFID chip… THINK TWICE!
I think some people are just being too negative about this move. I really like the idea and how much potential this RFID can bring.
So what if we eradicate kotong? It’s a small step to change our society’s mindset that we can get away with almost anything just with money. It will make drivers drive more carefully and more disciplined because they know they won’t get away from the hassle.
[...] Yugatech cites some potential advantages of this scheme, which includes ease of paying fines for traffic violations, faster registration [...]
Twitter: jangelo
says:
Kasama ba color coding sa apprehensions na aided ng RFID?
Wala nang takas mga mahilig mag commemorative plate. Raise your hand if you’re one of these folks. 
Idea looks good but timing is doubtful. Nine months to go for this administration. Seems like an election/retirement fund raising campaign. With millions of vehicles sa Phils. At P400 per pop malakilaki ang initial revenue nila. E kung within the 9 months hangang tags lang maprovide nila. Yung ancillary equipment inuutayutay pa hanggang magkalimutan na. I wont be surprised if the next LTO admin will be asking for additional funds to complete this project.
kotong is suhol so kotong means bribe or bribery ^^ ewan q kung tama hehe
It’s just sad that the people who are speaking against this technology, doesn’t even know how the technology works. I hope they do their research first before they claim their so called conspiracy theories. I heard Ted Failon and Teddy Casino talking about this and they already made this assumptions about RFID when it’s been in existence in the country for years now.
The DFA already begun accepting on-line appointments for the e-passport since Aug. 26 and quite a few already applied for it.
What’s disappointing is that it still takes 2 weeks before you get your e-passport because earlier reports said it will only take 5-10 days. I think there were a few with “connections” that were able to get it in just a couple of days and even if they applied on the wrong on-line appointment form and therefore no formal appointment letters. For the rest, it’s 2 weeks.
I’ll be getting mine by next week.
P.S. The e-passport has a 64k IC chip to store your biometrics besides from the same technology on the machine-readable passport just in case the IC chip fails. So, it’s really the IC chip the makes it unique and more secure and not the RFID.
http://foreign-nurse.lefora.com/2009/09/04/e-passport-has-finally-arrived-in-the-philippines/page1/
The word “Kotong” has crawled into our culture that signify corruption in those who are expected to enforce laws or regulations. And we are even active partners in this because we tolerate it to save us the hassle of facing the consequences of our actions.
But I won’t volunteer an English equivalent to this. The word simply goes deeper than “bribery”. We are a poor nation, and the amount we dish out as “kotong” makes it more evil because we badly need that amount ourselves.
This is my personal opinion and I claim no other else.
We started out in this RFID, but look where it led us.
10meters lng po ung range nyan! so ndi yn pede s paniniktik! haha
If the 64k chip and the RFID is one and the same then I stand corrected.
Look, they will place scanners almost everywhere you will go since one of the biggest pitches is that it can find stolen vehicles. Once your RFID-equipped car passes through a scanner, your car’s data and the scanner’s location are stored in a central database somewhere. Hence, someone in LTO can easily see where you’ve gone and even how fast you got there (by calculating distance between scanners and time elapsed). So one lackey in LTO can effectively come to your house one day and ask why you went to this place and to this place.
And knowing how lax IT security standards are in the government, would you want your personal travels to be known? The LTO chief hasnt even bothered to explain the security and encryption aspects (if there are any).
Second, is that they claim that this will reduce paperwork. It might make registration easier with no more stencils and all, but if you’re buying a used car, the owner still has to show documents since not all of us will have a scanner handy.
If the LTO is hell-bent to implement this, then do what all IT project managers do: run a pilot test first. Ideally, start with the city and provincial buses since they are supposedly under tight watch for their routes and how fast they are supposed to go. After the buses, then do the other public utility vehicles. After that, vehicles used by the government and then finally all private vehicles.
If the LTO was a trustful agency, maybe…but with their own fake number plate operation in it…no way.
Oh, and one more thing…since the RFID tag dosent turn off, anybody with a scanner walking down the street can scan your car and potentially get details from it…so if it contains the same data as your OR/CR, then they can get your name and address.
If you want to know more about RFID, check out Katherine Albrecht’s work.
http://www.spychips.com/
nah! this is just another money making (corruption) for LTO from US drivers…
No use here in Phils
yeah! yet another money making scheme from LTO. More money to corrupt.. RF ID is no use in Phils.. where pinoy are full of corrupts officials.
Regarding RFIDs. It was created to be a replacement for the bar code. In essence, it is just a sophisticated bar code with range.
A lot of people are against the RFID tags because it can easily be cloned and hacked unlike contactless smart chips that goes in e-passports.
In the hands of the wrong people, they can clone your RFID tags and then implant it to be used for something else. Sa Pinas pa !!
Besides, P400 for a glorified bar code with RF is expensive. Kung mura lang, baka puede pa.
It has many flaws, so can’t blame people. It’s unfair to say people have not done their research or just do not understand the technolgy. For all we know, they have done more research on RFID tags, w/c is why they are against it because they discovered it’s flaws
Contactless smart (microchip) cards that goes to e-passports are a diff. thing. They are not the same as the simple RFID tags. In fact, the old machine-readable zone on old passports are more secure than the US’ passport card that contains RFID only. This is the reason why US’ passport cards are only good for domestic use and a handful of countries only and not accepted for International travel. For Int’l travel they need to apply and use their e-passport containing the contactless microchip. The contactless chips that goes to modern e-passports are more secure and sophisticated than MR zones of old passports, so we can just see that RFIDs are on the lower totem pole among the three.
1)http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/02/cloning_rfid_pa_1.html
2)http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/video-hacker-war-drives-san-francisco-cloning-rfid-passports/
3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biometric_passport
4)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_card
its not just a scheme~
its an evil scheme if u know wat i mean~
simply invading privacy…
haaaaay~
the world will nearly end~
I simply have to laugh at the FUD most people are spreading around here…. Has anyone actually seen the technical specs that the LTO is looking to implement?
Tongue in cheek… your ATM/Credit card uses an RFID to store info. Does that make it safe/unsafe?
Does it mean that all vehicles must have rfid tags? I guess some people want to drive unidentified. I hope the rfid tags are not removable once attached in vehicles. But, I still don’t get the point. Have the proponents conducted an intensive study and analysis? Have they conducted a period of testing if it is really essential to the community? It is a waste of time and money launching the infomercial and just be criticized later. Is it really a big deal?
Did they say how this will help ease traffic? I’d think that’s a bigger problem than carnapping.
what RFID means anyway?
i think yung kinakatakot ng ibang tao lalo na yung mga human rights activists at mga rebolusyunaryo (lol) ay madali silang makikita in cases na meron silang activities pero that’s on justice’s side siguro… astig itong LTO-IT prooject na ito para mabawasan ang pasaway na tsuper na may dala dala palaging G.I pipe
)
@twitter – nope there’s no such thing or provision in the contract. It only stipulates modifications and enhancements concerning the Infrastructure that they have implemented.
Funny thing, the info contained in the tags will be the same info that is indicated on the car’s CR and OR. So what’s the point of implementing this if LTO requires that you carry a copy of these docs in your car. It won’t ease traffic. Why? traffic here in our country is caused by undisciplined drivers and law enforcers. If you get to read LTO’s traffic rules and regulations, maayos but the question is, is it being implemented properly. Most of these violators are the law makers and implementors themselves. Classic example, one of the major contributors of traffic are those PUVs that indiscriminately load and unload passengers. Traffic enforcers should do there jobs efficiently, dapat hulihin nila. Yun mga pasahero na nasa gitna ng kalsada kung mag-abang, dapat disiplinahin din.
Will it help curb pollution. Big, NO. LTO already implemented a “no emission test, no registration” policy. So how can they, smoke belchers, still be registered? Thru “none appearance” right? So who permits these non-appearance schemes, LTO din diba?
Will it deter car-napping. Don’t think so. Weird but it was recently in the news that they recently discovered a syndicate involving several LTO employees and officials illegally manufacturing authentic license plates with authentic LTO documents inside the Main LTO compound.
So how can this RFID deter all these issues?
Am not against RFIDs but this is not the right solution for the issues they have been pointing out.