The Government Uses License Plate Scanners to Track Your Every Move

[wraith808]

Automatic license plate readers are the most widespread location tracking technology you’ve probably never heard of. Mounted on patrol cars or stationary objects like bridges, they snap photos of every passing car, recording their plate numbers, times, and locations. At first the captured plate data was used just to check against lists of cars law enforcement hoped to locate for various reasons (to act on arrest warrants, find stolen cars, etc.). But increasingly, all of this data is being fed into massive databases that contain the location information of many millions of innocent Americans stretching back for months or even years.

More at (link via Gizmodo).

[Shades]

In the Netherlands there was (or still is) a club called: the Tuf-tuf club. They were always (creatively) destroying traffic camera's wherever they could find them and making (funny) pictures of the act.

There is still a Youtube video about this club... (Jeremy Clarkson from the show 'Top Gear' does the interview).

[40hz]

In the Netherlands there was (or still is) a club called: the Tuf-tuf club. They were always (creatively) destroying traffic camera's wherever they could find them and making (funny) pictures of the act.

There is still a Youtube video about this club... (Jeremy Clarkson from the show 'Top Gear' does the interview).

-Shades (July 17, 2013, 09:06 PM)

The stakes would be considerably higher over here. These days you'd probably be charged with terrorism for busting one of those scanners.

But that's today. If you did it back in the USA of the 70s, the formal charge would most likely be nothing more than willful destruction of municipal property or vandalism.


How the times have changed...

[4wd]

UK has used them for years to automatically check whether the vehicle is registered, roadworthy, and insured, (all three are required before you can legally drive it on a public road, providing you have a license also).

The only thing they have to do is not delete the data, I'm surprised this is 'new' news.

[Renegade]

There are IR or UV lights that foil/blind camera sensors. Their light is invisible to the human eye. One only need to set up a small array around your license plate to avoid detection. The trick then would be to have them concealed well enough that your average traffic cop wouldn't see them, that is if he understood what they were.

For non-optical imaging technologies, you'd need a different approach. (e.g. radar scattering)

Do a search on YouTube as there are some decent informational and instructional videos on the topic there. It helps to actually "see" what's happening there.

The stakes would be considerably higher over here. These days you'd probably be charged with terrorism for busting one of those scanners.

-40hz (July 17, 2013, 09:20 PM)

While true, if you sort of step back from the situation and then look at it again, it's pretty much hysterically funny.

[40hz]

if you sort of step back from the situation and then look at it again, it's pretty much hysterically funny.

-Renegade (July 17, 2013, 11:54 PM)

Hardly. I live here. I'm not laughing.

[Renegade]

if you sort of step back from the situation and then look at it again, it's pretty much hysterically funny.

-Renegade (July 17, 2013, 11:54 PM)

Hardly. I live here. I'm not laughing.

-40hz (July 18, 2013, 05:15 AM)

That's what I meant by "step back".

It reminds me of "Paranoia", an RPG from way back in 1984 (seriously). Great game. The games master can make up the rules as he goes because it's illegal for "citizens" to know the rules. It's still in print.

http://www.mongoosep...m/rpgs/paranoia.html

https://en.wikipedia...a_(role-playing_game)

Overview

Paranoia is a humorous role-playing game set in a dystopian future similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, Logan's Run and THX 1138 among others; however, the tone of the game is rife with black humor, frequently tongue-in-cheek rather than dark and heavy.

Setting

The game's main setting is an immense and futuristic city called Alpha Complex, which is controlled by The Computer, a civil service AI construct (a literal realization of the "Influencing Machine" that some schizophrenics fear). The Computer serves as the game's principal antagonist, and fears a number of threats to its 'perfect' society, such as The Outdoors, mutants, and secret societies (especially Communists). To deal with these threats, The Computer employs Troubleshooters, whose job is to go out, find trouble, and shoot it. Player characters are usually Troubleshooters, although later game supplements have allowed the players to take on other roles.

The player characters frequently receive mission instructions from the Computer that are incomprehensible, self-contradictory, or obviously fatal if adhered to, and side-missions which conflict the main mission. They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty or "experimental" (i.e. almost certainly dangerous and faulty). Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and a secret society member, and has a hidden agenda separate from the group's goals, often involving stealing from or killing teammates. Thus, missions often turn into a comedy of errors, as everyone on the team seeks to double-cross everyone else while keeping their own secrets. The game's manual encourages suspicion between players, offering several tips on how to make the gameplay as paranoid as possible.

Every player's character is assigned six clones, known as a "six-pack," which are used to replace the preceding clone upon his or her death. The game lacks a conventional health system; most wounds the player characters can suffer are assumed to be fatal. As a result, Paranoia allows characters to be routinely killed, yet the player can continue instead of leaving the game. This easy spending of clones tends to lead to frequent firefights, gruesome slapstick, and the horrible yet humorous demise of most if not all of the player character's clone family. Additional clones can be purchased if one gains sufficient favour with the Computer.

The Paranoia rulebook is unusual in a number of ways; demonstrating any knowledge of the rules is forbidden, and most of the rulebook is written in an easy, conversational tone that often makes fun of the players and their characters, while occasionally taking digs at other notable role-playing games.

If you've ever read the Paranoia rule book, it's HILARIOUS! Completely black humour.

The seriously dark side is that we are literally heading directly towards that kind of dystopian nightmare. If you read the above on the setting, you'll see some seriously dark parallels with today.

• ** demonstrating any knowledge of the rules is forbidden >> Secret courts, laws that nobody can know until they are passed, and laws that nobody is allowed to know the content of.
• ** They are issued equipment that is uniformly dangerous, faulty or "experimental" >> Same things goes on at the FDA with drugs that aren't tested for safety and GMOs.
• ** The game's main setting is an immense and futuristic city called Alpha Complex, which is controlled by The Computer >> "controlled by The Computer" - nuff said.
• ** Additionally, each player character is generally an unregistered mutant and a secret society member >> Those are all illegal and subject to summary execution in Paranoia. This is reflected in reality in the book "Three Felonies a Day". i.e. Everyone is a criminal.
• ** Additional clones can be purchased if one gains sufficient favour with the Computer. >> Does this sound anything like the revolving doors between lobbyists, corporations, and federal appointments? The FDA and US Supreme Court are great examples.

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