Britain is about to become the first country in the world to record the movements of all vehicles on the roads. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
And of course there’s a good reason for this, because citizens need protection…
“The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle movements to be captured,” the Acpo strategy says.
“This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation opportunities on a national basis,” it says.
Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. “Clearly there are values for this in counter-terrorism,” he said.
“The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don’t have access to. It’s part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we’d be negligent.”
But who will protect us from our protectors?!
We’ll get this system in the US soon enough. The insurance companies would LOVE to know where we were, how fast we were going, etc, for accident reconstruction. Expect ours to cost billions and use GPS technology.
If there’s any hope for the U.S. it’s that such a surveillance project in our country would get bogged down in pork barrel politics and corporate “me-too” handouts that it’ll never get fully implemented.
We could only hope that out Idiot in Chief would give Michael Brown the job to coordinate the project.
And we are crying here because the NSA easdropped on a few phone calls made to known terrorist phone numbers overseas. Britan is watching everyone…
OK. I realize that I’m going to be in the minority here, and possibly i’m being naive, but I don’t see this as a bad thing.
This is nowhere near as invasive as say, wiretaps. It doesn’t impede our movements like searches at airports or subways.
I’m sorry i’m not as paranoid as some. If they want to track my movements, they’re gonna be pretty bored. Are you really worried that they’ll track trips to the topless bar or an ACLU meeting?
On the other hand, I would like to see decreased crime and the threat of terrorism reduced in a way that doesn’t impede on my day-to day activities.
OK. Go ahead and blast me now, but I just don’t see them having the resources to track everyone’s petty quirks.
“It doesn’t impede our movements”
I’m reminded of the joke from Kids in the Hall about being locked in a universe sized prison. Sure, you’re free to walk around and travel, but as long as those guards are watching you, you’re still locked up.
Robert Nichols you will someday figure out how naive your are, and oh what a shock it will be! I have tons of ideas how to make money serving the Government Security Machine…. here’s a freebie: a law is passed that requires all serial numbers on all dollar bills be scanned into a database at the Point of Sale. The idea is the this will stop counterfeiting. All serial numbers on all bills are traced to you when your bank hands you your cash. Every risk profile associated with you is traced to your buying habits. Want to get car insurance, well, we see you buy a 12-pack every week, so insurance will be $7000 a year for you. Want to get a new job, we see you go to strip clubs 10 times a year, so you don’t fit within our corporate values (this is for a Walmart Job). Think you can date that woman, her corporate matchmaking service says you have a history that indicates you are a bad risk. Welcome to the future!
BL, I guess this is where we differ. One, I can’t see it getting to the Orwellian extremes that you do. Two, I’d give up *some* of my privacy to severely cut back on crime and fraud.
I think we would all be better off.
As I said, I expect most (or all) to disagree with me.
Feh. They’re probably doing this here already, but it’s a SECRET (just like the illegal NSA spying on Americans), and we’re not allowed to know about it.
At least Britain is being up-front about their conversion to a police state, and if somebody doesn’t like it, they can make a stink. With Dumbya’s regime, it’s all done on the DL, and only when troublemakers like reporters tell us about it do we find out.
And now the hate rags are trying to deflect attention from Dumbya’s immoral and unethical spying shenannigans by calling for charges to be filed agains the whistleblowers. Woof. Maybe they could share a cell with Woodward and Bernstein. All that attention that was paid to Watergate was surely a black eye for America, just like the revelation that the current “president” thinks he’s above the law.
Robert, you are right. Most of us will disagree with you. The only thing that is going to change your mind is time. You sound like me when I was young. I give you 20 years to become as cynical as the rest of us.
Robert Nichols, I’m not going to say you’re wrong. You admitted it was merely an opinion and you shared it. But I got to thinking about it and wanted to share it with the group.
You are willing to give up something for security. That’s quite common. People do that all the time. People give up the convenience of living in the city for the security of living in a suburb. Some people give up their kid’s safety for the security of having a loaded gun around the house. Some people don’t feel “safe” driving on expressways, so they give up the convenience and take back roads.
It’s perfectly acceptable to choose to be safe. No one can really ever say that a person is being too safe. It’s a matter of personal opinion. Some people like living dangerously and some don’t.
However, it’s wrong for the choice to be imposed on everyone by the government. And that’s the problem. Merely because some people want to be so safe that the government knows our every movement, does not mean that we all have the same want.
At the very least, this is merely another example of a nanny-state. That the government is our parent and knows what’s best. I’m not entirely certain that the government knows what’s best for me. And that’s WITHOUT even considering the very strong possibility that the government has an agenda contrary to our interests.
I don’t know if spying is the right word for most of these things.
Spying implies there is something to gained. Treating everybody and everything as a threat would seem to make the real threat blend right in with the crowd. I guess it’s good for the people selling devices and software. Then somebody does something that slips through the system and nobody was watching. They’ll have it on tape and have a backup of the tape on a disc. This can be studied and then the algorithms can be tweaked to prevent future threats with new v2.0 spyware and the required patches by the mod squad.
The technology nazis are always at it. I have some stuff to do that requires something more advanced than the PC here.
“Spying implies there is something to gained.”
Dvorak Reader, if nothing is being gained by this system, exactly why are they doing it?!
Interesting. When I referred to crime, I really was thinking of the economics angle. I feel safe now. With no disrespect to terrorist victims and families, I think the threat is overblown. Many more people die from car accidents than terrorism, but people don’t have the same kind of fear of car accidents.
Also, I’m referring specifically to the article in question. Looking at license plates with cameras. My thought is that something like this (essentially info that is public anyway – your license plate) can be used *instead* of some of the more intrusive methods (like wiretaps and searches).
I agree that it is important to keep it out in the open as MM stated, and Britain is doing.
I guess it’s a case of which you fear more: the government, or organized crime and an underground economy. I definitely fear both, but right now I think the latter needs to be kept more in check. It’s a balance.
BTW, I don’t think I can be considered young anymore, even though I am, perhaps, not as experienced and wise as eidard. Put me in John’s category.
Steve, You’ll need to ask them that. I just don’t know.
Why does Rice play Texas?
Doesn’t anyone remember that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Trite but true. The more power you give a government, the more you can expect them to abuse it.
I don’t know how, a government that wages a war on false intelligence, lies to its people, and runs up the debt to unprecidented amounts, can possibly be trusted with the tracking of its population’s movements.
Those who do not stand up for liberty do not deserve it. Is your society free, or isn’t it?
What I don’t get is how they can read your auto tag from a spy satellite in space but they can’t see 3 tons of coke coming into Florida. Then they move it through Miami and sell it in LA. They say they’re going to stop it but it doesn’t go away. So now we have security to watch every granny in the world driving to the market or church. Gee, it makes you feel safer, just not totally safe.
Some counties in Florida use the same technology in the dash mounted cameras deployed in road deputies cars. These systems automatically OCR any plate within its field of vision and check against outstanding warrants, stolen cars, etc.
BTW, the UK technology has been city wide in London for several years. The fact is mentioned on a Discovery (or Science) channel documentary that’s almost three years old.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMYJviX_FA0