flynn23 wrote:

noteworthy wrote:

Britain, already the world's leader in video surveillance of its people, will soon be able to automatically track the movements of millions of cars on most of its major roads.

"It will revolutionize policing," said John Dean, the national coordinator of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, or ANPR. "Our aim is to deny criminals the use of the roads."

They should integrate the ticketing system with mobile phones, so that if you run a red light, you immediately get a message chastizing (and fining) you for it. And maybe they could also send a message to all of your AIM buddies, too, letting them know about your dangerous ways.

What's really needed is an in-car augmented reality system that provides the ticketing and accident history for all of the drivers/cars in your immediate vicinity. And if someone's been stopped for suspicious behavior in the recent past, it would alert you to that fact, so you could keep an eye out.

Laugh it up, but Britain is the test ground of all of this for the US and other nations. The economy will shift towards transparency and accountability after this infrastructure is in place. There will be rewards, but you can kiss privacy and anonymity goodbye.

Personally I don't think noteworthy was kidding, but the rest of your point is well made.

There are already moves to integrate the mobile phone network with surveillance. And while I don't have the exact figure, I believe that in the UK you will typically be recorded on CCTV over 20 times a day. The problem for me is not the technology, but who is using it.

We're told it can used to catch criminals, and who except the criminal has a problem with that? But we've just seen phone call records for sale in the US. What about five years down the road and location records being put on sale? How about a government tagging political opponents? How about... well, you've read the books too. I'm not a natural pessimist but we've been warned.

If we give up our liberties too easily, we will sooner or later suffer consequences, great or small. And right now in the US and UK we are handing over liberties to government just for the asking. Only recently in the UK the law changed to allow a police officer to formally arrest anyone for anything regarded as an offence - dropping litter, loitering on a street corner. An arrest is on your record for life, DNA samples taken, fingerprints. For crossing the road in the wrong place?

No, of course it won't happen. The good old British Bobby is a kindly soul. People don't get shot on the underground for no reason. The woman arrested for walking along a cycle path didn't happen either. No, none of this happened. Happy denial, any geeks out there who love technology more than freedom.

And this from an optimist who is not even sure if the loss of liberty, with its risks, is not a worth taking against all else that we will sooner or later have to face. No easy answers ...

RE: Electronic Eye Grows Wider in Britain