I resisted getting one for years. I didn't want The Man to keep tabs on me using is. But I have finally bought a car made this millennium. The Man is tracking me through that. Might as well make my life easier and slightly cheaper on the toll roads. Get an EZPass.
Besides. The Man starts to notice if you DON'T have a footprint they can track. Like, what do I have to hide from The Man? So The Man steps up his other avenues. And there are always other avenues. For instance. This blog. Connected to an email address. Which is google blogspot. They share/sell that info with Amazon and Facebook and certainly others.
"This T-Bolt guy with no cellphone sure buys a lotta personal lubricant. Better watching HIM twice as hard. He's up to no good. Plus: guns" -The Man.
So, EZPass, smartphone... hide in plain sight. Oh crap! Better ditch the tactical pants, too.
That said, the do make it really complicated when you sign up. Now will this plan work near my house? What about in Virginia, Ohio, or Pennsylvania? The hell?
A hole in the background gets noticed. Another lump of dirt does not.
ReplyDeleteDon't know about your fair Commonwealth, but in Colorado, you open you account with at least a $35 balance and the charges are taken out of that. Presumably the balance has to be positive for the pass to work. No word on how much interest the state makes on those balances. If any.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a Maryland EZPass - I dropped it when the fee went to $1/ month (several years ago). I now have a PA one since it was the lowest fee at $4/ year. Each state or system has different fees, so I hope you shopped around.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the others above - a hole gets noticed, so it is better if you leave some trail than none at all. There was an article a couple of years ago about a traditional group in France being investigated as a threat because they didn't use cell phones and therefore couldn't be tracked.
You CAN decide when and how to be tracked, at least in states with few license plate trackers.
Jonathan:
ReplyDeleteSan Jose CA decided to mount plate readers on their trash trucks, since they couldn't guarantee that a cop car would drive down every street at least once a week. TPTB really want to keep tabs on people and vehicles, especially in the Blue states, it seems. I would assume various other areas do the same thing, but don't have confirmation.