AUSTIN, TEXAS — According to an article in Computer World, privacy experts have concerns about a new proposal for Texas to replace vehicle inspection stickers with RFID tags, which would be used by law enforcement to ensure compliance with the state's insurance laws, as reported by Telematics Update. According to Larry Phillips, the Republican state representative who proposed the bill, the system would be used to reduce the number of uninsured drivers on the road, which currently stands at 26 percent. The bill also calls for the transponders to be compatible with the automated vehicle registration and certificate of title system established by the Texas DOT and other agencies for use of toll roads and toll facilities. Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said, “This is an appalling application of RFID technology,” he said, adding that the use of RFID for this particular application will not stop there. “As with any information technology, there will be many other uses found for the RFID tag located on the vehicle. And tracking could be one of them.” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. agrees, saying that while RFID applications are not necessarily bad, there have always been concerns about privacy issues.