doesn't emit anything until its activated by the overhead equipment at the toll booth. And it only works when in plain view at the glass. I have an older model that has a digital display and makes a beep when activated. It rarely works when just sitting on the dash and needs to be on the windshield or out the window. And if you want to test you conspiracy theory yourself, put the ipass in your center console, drive through an I-pass lane, then login to their website when you get home and see what your last toll was. Sorry for the long winded response, but there's a lot of paranoid people out there today and I need to fix them one crazy at a time!