The breakthrough electronic device once thought to make travel smoother and less stressful has taken on a new form.

Over the past couple of years, I-Pass has been by the courts to investigate crimes.

ince 2000, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has received 11 subpoenas from lawyers and public agencies in search of I-Pass records from customers on trial.

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority Press Secretary Joelle McGinnis denied that the use of I-Pass has been used to act specifically as an undercover tool for catching deviant activity.

“We are not monitoring the lives of I-Pass customers,” McGinnis said. “We don’t use it to track individual tour activity or to issue a speeding ticket. Motorists can receive tickets for speeding through the I-Pass lanes.”

McGinnis said all I-Pass records is the time, date and deduction of toll charges from the motorist. If a subpoena is sent to her or the Toll Highway Authority, only then will it give out any information pertaining to specific motorists. McGinnis said despite giving out records in the rare occurrence of a subpoena, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority does not distribute records for any other reason.

“We have no need to track customers,” McGinnis said. “Put it into perspective. I-Pass has been around since 1993, and as of now, only 11 times have we had to give out records. It’s not an everyday thing.”

An example of a recent case of I-Pass being used in court was during a custody suit when a man claimed his wife was never home to take care of their child. The woman denied the allegation, but I-Pass records showed her consistently passing through I-Pass lanes early in the morning for work and passing through late at night. As a result, the man received half custody of his child.

Attorney Timothy Johnson, however, said I-Pass has swayed from what it initially was intended to provide.

“I think it’s an intrusion into people’s privacy,” Johnson said. “I-Pass wasn’t necessarily designed to do this.”

Johnson said that in some cases within the court of law, handing out records to lawyers or government officials is not a breach of privacy.

“Like anything else, records like those should be kept private until needed for public use,” Johnson said. “In some cases, an issue may be raised where a person has been saying he’s somewhere 60 miles away at a specific time when, in fact, records show he may have passed an I-Pass somewhere completely different at the same time.”

Attorney Scott Erwin said he isn’t completely sold on I-Pass’ new role on the tollways.

“I’m not favored with government agencies getting private records like these,” Erwin said. “But anyone who uses I-Pass should know it’s keeping track of them.”

Junior mechanical engineering major Jomy Joseph said using I-Pass as a means of tracking motorists is a good feature and people who fear breaking the law shouldn’t do so in the first place.

“If people aren’t going to do anything bad, why worry about it?” Joseph said. “But people who buy I-Pass should be able to sign a waiver saying this is what I-Pass may do.”

Attorney Ed Varga of Aurora, however, completely opposes the new methods used through I-Pass, saying that it has become an absolute violation of privacy.

“Some reports say that it’s a big brother type of thing,” Varga said. “One of the things I’m hearing they may do is implement traffic tickets in the cases of motorists from one toll booth to another being clocked for the amount of time it takes them to get from both points and dividing it by the distance. “

Varga added that I-Pass’ new role has him worried about the direction authorities are taking to enforce laws.

“Not only I-Pass, but also here in Aurora, they are putting up cameras to track prostitution,” Varga said. “So when a random female, say a sister, is walking down with her brother, cops may stop them out of suspicion the lady is a prostitute. This is why I’m against censorship and privacy violations such as these, and I fear what our society is coming to these days.”

Not everyone has negative thoughts toward I-Pass’ spying capabilities. Attorney James Stoddard, a user of I-Pass, said that he’s indifferent to the repercussions being an I-Pass customer may bring with it.

“Honestly, the whole spying theory doesn’t really bother me at all,” Stoddard said.