Bengaluru’s Measure to Deduct Fines from FASTag Accounts Raises Alarming Privacy Concerns

Extending its crackdown on traffic rule violators, Bengaluru Police has proposed that vehicles caught speeding on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway should be fined using their FASTag accounts. Over the past week, the Bengaluru traffic police has taken several strict steps to curb the number of accidents being caused on the expressway due to over-speeding. The department has recently installed Artificial Intelligence (AI) based cameras to identify violations such as wrong-side driving, over-speeding, riding without a helmet or using a smartphone while operating a vehicle. The administration has even banned slow-moving vehicles like two-wheelers, tractors and autos from plying on the expressway as they compromise the safety of high-speed vehicles. Now, it has proposed the deduction of fines directly from FASTag accounts of vehicles.
While the plan is still on the drawing board, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is looking into the possibility of implementing such an idea. On the surface, it is a solid proposal which would streamline penalty collection by making the process much more efficient and eliminate the need for manual stops, fine collection and reduce mid-way congestion. However, deducting fines directly through a FASTag account raises a major privacy issue.

As per the Additional Director General of Police, Alok Kumar, “At present, any amount deducted for FASTag accounts goes to NHAI. Our plan is to deduct the fine and deposit it to the government. If possible, we will push for the project at the earliest.” This means that each account holder’s personal and financial information registered in the FASTag database (operated by NHAI), would need to be linked to the government treasury, instead of NHAI. This can only be achieved after robust privacy protection measures are implemented to ensure that the data remains secure and cannot be breached or misused. Overall, even if the administration is successful in building the mechanism, it would still require rigorous testing before a seamless integration with FASTag and NHAI can be achieved. Bottom line, such an integration needs to be bulletproof to ensure the safety of all FASTag account holders.

To this effect, ADG Kumar has reportedly asked NHAI officials to check whether it is feasible to deduct the amount from FASTag accounts and then remit it to the government.