Vehicles microchip tags bucked

A MILITANT lawmaker yesterday opposed the plan of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to tag vehicles with microchips using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology which she claimed could violate the people’s right to privacy.
    
Gabriela Rep.  Liza Maza feared that the microchips could be used to spy individuals who are critical of the government instead of speeding up the vehicle registration process by providing the authorities and the public fast identification of the vehicles.
   
“This technology raises fears that it might be used to violate the right to privacy of individuals. LTO’s microchips might in turn be used as spy chips for government’s surveillance operations to those critical of the current administration,” said Maza.
   
The LTO claimed that it will begin tagging next month all vehicles with RFID labels.
   
Based on LTO’s plan, the tag will enable to identify all details on specific vehicle with the speed of electronic computing.
   
It said that the sticker contains a microchip storing vehicle information that is reportedly tamper-proof and can only be “read” by authorized scanners of the LTO and the police.