India
Govt ensures data privacy protection with satellite-based toll collection on highways – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Amid concerns over likely violation of data privacy thanks to real-time tracking of vehicles equipped with a device for satellite based toll collection (GNSS) on NHs, top government officials said the architecture is such that it ensures that the devices capture vehicle signatures only when they enter designated lanes. This automatically stops once the vehicle enters the GNSS stretches out.
Responding to a question on how the government is ensuring that data privacy is not infringed, Union Road Transport Minister Anurag Jain said, “We are absolutely clear on data privacy. Your (vehicle) signature is captured the moment you drive the national highway. Once you leave the website, your signature is no longer recorded.”
Sources said that given the complexity of protecting data privacy, the plan would first commercial vehicles under this regime. “Detailed studies are being conducted on how to deal with this and how other countries have dealt with private vehicles. This may require actual testing to see and ensure that private data is not exposed,” the official said.
In fact, according to the GNSS concept note, the ‘toll charger’ (software for calculating distance and toll amount on designated routes) will be able to receive ‘anonymized pings’ per second from the devices installed in vehicles, consisting of a time-location stamp of the device, a virtual ID associated with the vehicle/vehicle class. ‘Data that does not fall on the NH network will not be stored or processed further and will be discarded immediately. toll collection will operate according to the principle of purpose-binding with objectivity in calculating tolls,” it was specified.
Jain said that under this system, all players have a contractual obligation with the government not to follow at all times. He also said that there is a complaints handling mechanism.
Responding to a question on how the government is ensuring that data privacy is not infringed, Union Road Transport Minister Anurag Jain said, “We are absolutely clear on data privacy. Your (vehicle) signature is captured the moment you drive the national highway. Once you leave the website, your signature is no longer recorded.”
Sources said that given the complexity of protecting data privacy, the plan would first commercial vehicles under this regime. “Detailed studies are being conducted on how to deal with this and how other countries have dealt with private vehicles. This may require actual testing to see and ensure that private data is not exposed,” the official said.
In fact, according to the GNSS concept note, the ‘toll charger’ (software for calculating distance and toll amount on designated routes) will be able to receive ‘anonymized pings’ per second from the devices installed in vehicles, consisting of a time-location stamp of the device, a virtual ID associated with the vehicle/vehicle class. ‘Data that does not fall on the NH network will not be stored or processed further and will be discarded immediately. toll collection will operate according to the principle of purpose-binding with objectivity in calculating tolls,” it was specified.
Jain said that under this system, all players have a contractual obligation with the government not to follow at all times. He also said that there is a complaints handling mechanism.
