Wednesday, November 20, 2013

"How License-Plate Scanners Are Eroding Our Privacy"

"Here's a thought experiment: imagine that activists, concerned with official misconduct, install license-plate readers on private property to track the location of every car belonging to the police department or a politician and upload the locations to a public database. The result: a map of where the police go, and where they don't—along, perhaps, with politicians' visits to motels or strip clubs."

Read more: How License-Plate Scanners Are Eroding Our Privacy - Popular Mechanics
Written by Glenn Reynolds

15 comments:

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Reynolds has found himself a cow to milk that'll never run dry.

deborah said...

He's golden.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The two edged nature of our new surveillance state is shown by the relative ease with which Snowden revealed masses of state secrets. Like a lot of people I am uncomfortable with the Stasi-like nature of our current state sponsored surveillance network. The difference with East Germany is that the surveillance technology is now very cheap and can be used by citizens as well as the state.

There certainly should be a right for citizens to record all their dealings with the police. Whether that right should extend to 24 hour surveillance of individual police or politicians is debatable, but the reality is that to a large extent this is already happening on a mass scale.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Things have changed forever and not for better.

I mean, it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to whack off in my own office!

Shouting Thomas said...

I mean, it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to whack off in my own office!

Stick a piece of black tape over the camera hole in your computer!

And, don't forget to wash the screen every once in a while!

deborah said...

It's the new normal. Like fingerprints, people will have to find work-arounds.

deborah said...

I started putting a band-aid over mine when I heard that a school system had been spying on students with school-provided laptops. There are limits, you'd think.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

The insurgency begins! Long live the revolution!

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

And, don't forget to wash the screen every once in a while!

Keyboard and mouse too.

Chip Ahoy said...

When I handed my laptop over to be repaired I told the guy I disinfected the whole thing, even the power cord. Wasn't that nice of me? A joke. I did wipe it down with disinfectant, but only mentioned it as a joke.

He answered, "YES!" So resoundingly and so fast it surprised me. Nothing funny about it at all. He was honestly impressed and grateful about that. Apparently the laptops he gets in are disgusting.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Chip, is there a reason he was glad you in particular disinfected it?

Unknown said...

At some point we will all have bar code tattoos and eye scanners will be everywhere. Mostly so dr oz can sell is some products and the dems can layer more taxes.

ampersand said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Methadras said...

Shouting Thomas said...

I mean, it's gotten to the point where I'm afraid to whack off in my own office!

Stick a piece of black tape over the camera hole in your computer!

And, don't forget to wash the screen every once in a while!


Keyboard too. Get the ones you can wash in the dish washer. NTTIAWWT

Methadras said...

I'm already talking to someone on whether its possible to actually track police cruisers via their gps units within a given range. If they are gonna fuck with me and track me, then same back to them. Law enforcement really doesn't get my respect anymore.