ANPR: Big Brother is Alive and Well and Living in Manchester UK
PistonHeads reports police in Manchester have raise their surveillance efforts in the world's most surveilled country to the next level. They're recording information on every one of the 600k cars that enter the city on a daily basis. When you drive into Manchester on one of twelve major routes, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras record your car's registration and color and the time of entry. The system automatically checks your information against national databases to see what heinous crime someone driving your car may have committed. The police and/or various government agencies store the information for five years "to fight terrorism, crime and car theft." The UK has the same system in place in The City (London's financial district) following a 1993 terrorist attack in Bishopsgate. Let the "if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about" arguments begin.
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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article3965033.ece This is about British plans to maintain a database of every single phone call, email, and internet session by the whole population for a year at a time. British gov't plans are obviously total surveillance of the population. Of all things pretty much exactly like Orwell's account in fiction. As the technology to do so improves it is clear the UK authorities will use it for any and all surveillance possible. Pity that so far it hasn't made anything safer or better while wasting lots of money imo. I think it is much less about terrorism and crime prevention than about gov't control of the population it fears.
Well I may not like Big Brother but its not infallible. I have only just bothered to tax my car after two years of being on the road. I also have quite a few unpaid tickets and they havn't managed to catch up with me quite yet. No doubt I am a rash on somebodies computer
The small "cameras" at intersections are just motion detectors that control the signals instead of pressure sensors buried in the pavement. Unless you are really paranoid and believe in government conspiracies of all kinds, then they are cameras following your every move.
so would that wonderful photo blocker spray shit and some full-body vinyls to change your car's color on a daily basis help out?