Govt’s Surveillance-based Tolling Raises Major Privacy Concerns

Azdhanon 5 minute read
5 minute read

The media has reported the alleged rollout of a new GPS-based toll tax collection system over the last few days. However, the government clarified that “no such decision has been taken by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways or the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regarding the nationwide implementation of satellite-based tolling from May 1, 2025.”

“ANPR-FASTag-based Barrier-Less Tolling System will be implemented at selected toll plazas,” said the press release by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways while denying any satellite-based tolling system. ANPR refers to the Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology, where cameras can read the number plates of vehicles on the roads. 

The rumours of a GPS-based tolling system began to float when Nitin Gadkari spoke at an event on Monday (April 14, 2025). “The central government will soon introduce a new toll policy…within the next 15 days, a new policy will be announced,” said Nitin Gadkari, according to reports from ANI.  

But Nitin Gadkari has been teasing us about the satellite-based tolling system for a long time. In 2024, Gadkari said, “Now we are ending the toll, and there will be a satellite-based toll collection system.” In the same year, he added that a pilot study on GNSS-based toll collection was conducted on the Bengaluru-Mysore section of NH-275 in Karnataka and the Panipat-Hisar section of NH-709 in Haryana. 

Stakeholder consultation was done through an international workshop conducted on June 25, 2024, he reportedly said, according to the media reports. 

Just four years after the government mandated FASTag for all vehicles on national highways, it now plans to start a new GPS-based tolling system that charges cars based on vehicular movement — i.e., the distance travelled on national highways instead of the current entry-exit model at toll plazas.

How does GPS-based Tolling Work? 

The vehicle needs a new On-Board Unit (OBU) that tracks its movement on roads. The government claims that this OBU can “neither be removed nor dismantled or tampered with,” according to media reports.  

The OBU device uses the Indian-origin satellite navigation system, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). It offers the Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which is available to everyone, unlike its encrypted Restricted Services (RS). IRNSS was developed for terrestrial, aerial, and naval navigation. It can accurately provide geo-data extending up to 1,500 km beyond the Indian boundary. 

This doesn’t mean that FASTag is going away. The GPS-based OBU built on IRNSS will work as a hybrid model, co-existing with the current RFID-based FASTag. However, the government has not announced how it plans to implement the GPS-based toll system.

Along with the OBU, ANPR cameras will also be installed on national highways to ensure that “drivers can’t skip the payment.” ANPR is also supposed to serve as a backup mechanism if the system fails. 

Banks and digital wallets will also need to be linked for auto-deduction based on the distance travelled on a particular highway. The rollout is supposed to happen in phases, starting with trucks and buses. Then, the transition is planned for all vehicles. 

Why is this a Major Privacy Concern?

There are multiple aspects to which one can wonder about digital rights in our hyper-digitised economy. A few of them are: 

Data Protection:

The Indian government is notoriously known for its negligence around data leaks.

  • In 2023, a Telegram bot was giving away access to sensitive information from the government’s CoWIN database.
  • In the same year, ICMR saw a significant data breach, revealing the data of 81 crore Indians.
  • In 2017, UIDAI admitted that 210 government websites had publicly displayed sensitive information, including the names and addresses of Aadhaar users. 

When there was a series of Aadhaar leaks, MediaNama had earlier compiled multiple instances. You can read the article here. 

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Perpetual Surveillance:

Should we give up our privacy for the tiny-comfort of avoiding a small speed breaker at a boom-barrier-less toll plaza? 

The idea of giving away data on vehicular mobility (and, by extension, personal movement) is a nightmare to any privacy-concerned citizen. One can’t help but ask: What else can the government, or anyone with access to GPS data, do beyond letting you pay the toll tax? 

In 2024, it was reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States was using a ‘warrantless foreign surveillance program.’ Similarly, mass surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is widely reported. 

The Government of India is accused of using Israeli-based spyware Pegasus to spy on journalists, politicians, activists, businesspeople, and bureaucrats across 11 countries, including India. 

A month ago, in February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about increased digital surveillance to combat tax avoidance. “Rs 250 crore have been unearthed when the encryption was decoded,” she said. “Google Maps’ location history was used to locate the hideouts where the unaccounted transactions were kept,” emphasising the need for “legal backing” for enhanced surveillance.    

Privacy Questions That Need to Asked and Answered: 

  • Is the GPS-based tolling voluntary? Or mandatory? Or, much worse, Voluntarily-mandatory, like Aadhaar?
  • How will the government ensure that the data is secured?
  • Who will manufacture the GPS devices that can “neither be removed nor dismantled or tampered with?” 
  • Is this technology going to be “open-sourced”, as the NPCI claims? (NPCI developed the digital infrastructure to enable electronic payments at toll plazas)
  • Do drivers have the right to turn off the OBU after they leave national highways? (The rumours are that the government exempts the vehicles from charging them around 20 km of a toll point. Incentives may lure more drivers.)
  • Will the GPS data be anonymised and encrypted to protect the driver’s identity?
  • How will the government prevent driver profiling?
  • How will it ensure that travel data isn’t (mis)used by enforcement agencies like the ED, CBI, etc.?
  • Will the vehicle’s GPS data be automatically deleted after the payment is processed?
  • Will the IRNSS-based GPS data be used for traffic management, similar to how GAGAN is used in air traffic control?
  • Will the government mandate linking driver’s licences with Aadhaar?
  • Will vehicle manufacturers be required to pre-install OBUs?
  • Will it be harder to remove/dismantle OBUs if participation is made voluntary?
  • Who will manufacture the OBUs? Who will hold the data? How much data will be collected?
  • Will there be dynamic tolling — different rates for high-demand highways or commercial vehicles?
  • Will the government expand its surveillance-based toll system across India’s 6.67 million km road network — the second-largest in the world?

Double-tongued Secrecy

Many questions still need to be asked and answered, especially regarding operational details. The government’s double tongue is misleading and causes much confusion. On one hand, the Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, endorses satellite-based tolling. On the other, the government remains silent about implementation plans. The recent press release also denied launching a satellite-based tolling system from May 1, 2025. It didn’t clarify the ambiguity in media reports.

The lack of a clear plan and transparency around user data privacy leaves citizens with no choice but to accept — when implemented — government plans, which is known for overnight policy overhauls.

Note –

Also Read: Note: The headline was changed for clarity based on editorial inputs on 19/04/2025 at 5:10 pm.

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