“As an organization dedicated to the preservation of civil liberties, the NYCLU believes this particular plan contains some very serious privacy implications,” said Executive Director Donna Lieberman.
In testimony presented to the New York City Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn said that the while the NYCLU takes no position on congestion pricing as a concept, the organization does take issue with the thousands of government cameras constantly recording law-abiding people that this scheme requires.
“A public discussion about the technological capabilities of the cameras needs to take place,” Dunn said. “We are particularly concerned that the enormous amounts of information that might be gathered by the congestion pricing cameras might be misused. Given the potential for abuse when the government starts to collect systemic information about the day-to-day activities of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding people, we believe it is essential that any congestion pricing plan proposed by this Commission include clear and explicit protections for individuals’ privacy and due process rights.”
Click here to read the NYCLU’s testimony (PDF).
