MA Turnpike on the Balance between AET System Research Potential and Customer Privacy

Masslive.com reports, “Those E-ZPass transponders that you affix to your car to pay tolls electronically might look small but they — and the system that scans them built by Raytheon and designed to absorb information from them — pack plenty of data. ‘Your life story is in there,’ Peter Mills, the executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority, told reporters at a recent summit on tolling.” MassDOT secretary Stephanie Pollack agrees that the state turnpike’s new AET system will provide “a rich mine of data” useful to transportation researchers, but tells MassLive.com, “Privacy comes first.”