“We definitely have an interest in testing an RFID-tagged license plate,” said Jerry Dike, chairman of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and director of the Vehicle Titles and Registration Division of the Texas Department of Transportation.

So-called “active” RFID tags, like the one in the e-Plate made by the U.K. firm Hills Numberplates, have built-in batteries, allowing them to broadcast data much farther than the small passive tags used to track inventory at retail stores.

Civil libertarians don’t object to an RFID automatic toll-collection system that “anonymizes” vehicles in databases once a transaction is completed. But they doubt the government — given its thirst for intelligence — will use such privacy-protection measures. From a law-enforcement perspective, “there is no reason to have privacy for anything,” said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The FBI used to send out a couple of agents armed with notebooks and pencils to write down who was parked in front of where. Some of these clowns might be automated out of a job.