DATA watchdogs have warned that our privacy could be the price of congestion charging.

Information commissioner Phil Jones said surveillance rings that could be thrown around Manchester to monitor motorists paying the charge will expand our `electronic footprints' - allowing authorities to build a growing picture of our everyday movements.

Mr Jones spoke to the M.E.N. on behalf of the Information Commissioner's Office as the body launched a drive to encourage individuals to take more control of their personal information.

The drive also urged organisations to carry out `privacy impact assessments' in a bid to increase public confidence in data collection.

Mr Jones said they understood the interest in `rationing road use by charging', but did not think this justified building up `what is potentially an electronic picture of the travel patterns of everyone who uses the roads'.

Traced

He said: "If you have a lot of data stored, there's always the chance someone might lose it, someone might hack into it, or someone might be traced inappropriately through it.

"Organisations need to gain public trust, yet they treat the public as untrustworthy - because rather than monitor the few delinquents who flout the system, they are monitoring the masses."

If congestion charging is brought in, cameras linked to an automatic number plate recognition programme could be used to catch out cheats as they pass in and out of the congestion zone.

Phil Carey, from the Department of Transport, admitted to the ICO `Surveillance Society' conference at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall that there were privacy concerns over the data being collected, but he added: "The aim is to relieve traffic jams, not to create a Big Brother society."

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