International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Society IGNSS Symposium 2007 The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 4 – 6 December, 2007 Anonymous Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) Muhammad Usman Iqbal School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia Tel: +61 2 9385 4206 Fax: +61 2 9313 7493 Email: m.iqbal@student.unsw.edu.au Samsung Lim School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW Australia Tel: +61 2 9385 4505 Fax: +61 2 9313 7493 Email: s.lim@unsw.edu.au ABSTRACT Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) has attracted major attention to charge toll from motorists without the need for them to stop at toll plazas. For ETC to perform its operations, it requires the identification information of the transponder attached to the windscreen. This convenience of a faster trip is at the cost of the loss of personal autonomy and privacy. This paper studies the loss of anonymity in current systems and highlights the importance of anonymous operation from an ethical, legislative, standards-based, and technical point of view. This paper also presents a cryptographic solution for achieving ETC that eliminates the need for patrons wishing anonymous operations to pre-pay, and minimises the need for taking pictures of all vehicles at toll gantries. KEYWORDS: Electronic Toll Collection, anonymous, location privacy, transport surveillance, Intelligent Transportation Systems. 1. INTRODUCTION Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is an international initiative to utilise information and communications technology to transport infrastructures and vehicles to improve road safety, reduce transportation time and fuel consumption. In most ITS applications, there is no need to