E-ZPass Makes It Easy to Catch Cheaters

Aug. 13, 2007 — -- A cheating spouse used to get caught by accident. Perhaps a lipstick smudge on a collar or a credit card bill for a gift not received by a wife would give the affair away. But today's cheaters leave evidence that just can't be explained as easily away.

A wife who thinks her husband is cheating today probably doesn't have to get her hands dirty to get the goods on him. Evidence could be on the family's E-ZPass bill.

E-ZPass, a little white box on windshields many use as a timesaver at backed-up tollbooths, may turn out to be the undoing of a philandering mate.

"You can follow people on E-ZPass, credit cards, text messages, e-mails, bank records, ATMs. Love is everywhere," divorce lawyer Jacalyn Barrett said. "E-ZPass is the easy way to find out who's telling the truth."

But privacy advocates say the truth shouldn't be so readily available.

"Should it be on the individual to basically lock himself up and turn himself into a hermit in order to protect his privacy or do we want a society that actually respects our privacy, even as we use all the conveniences and tools of everyday life?" said Lee Tien, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

E-ZPass is an electronic toll system in 12 states. Seven of those states will release those records in response to court orders involving civil cases, including divorce. Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania only will release records in criminal cases.

In 2004, New Jersey nurse Melanie McGuire was accused of killing her husband, cutting up his body and discarding it into the Chesapeake Bay. She was convicted this year, in part because prosecutors were able to reconstruct her movements based on her E-ZPass records.

"There is a cost to the convenience factor," Tien said, "but I think the deeper message is do we want to say that whatever you do you're going be tracked."

And it is not just E-ZPass. From BlackBerries to iPhones, the digital trail leads everywhere. Last week a Texas husband sued 1-800-Flowers for providing his wife with information about flowers he'd sent to another woman.