Quote:
Originally Posted by terence
What else can be spied on.
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Pretty much anything Terence.
Ten years ago or a little more, back in the days when Speed Cameras were thought to be something that could be battled against, people were also concerned about the other cameras that a couple of organisations had set up on bridges over main roads that helped to measure traffic flows.
Some just measured passing vehicle types and their speed at that point. Others read number plates and matched them as they passed various other cameras around the country and so could calculated average speeds between two point some distance apart.
Then came ANPR and after a bit of complaining it was clear that it was going to happen anyway so people gave up on worrying although in theory its use was very restricted in the early days and "not retained in any database if the checks run at the roadside by the police are not flagged up at the time."
Yes. Of course they are canned.
But not by the Parking Companies of course. Or "Congestion" Tax monitoring.
And last week I read the report of a court case about, iirc, an abduction and murder in the West country where the miscreants then drove up to the Northwest - or something like that - and some time after that journey the police were able to follow the accused's movements by looking back through the camera records.
As I recall mobile phone companies are required to keep records for an extended period of time. In towns and cities it has been possible for some years generate a very accurate trace of a phone's location by triangulating its position in relation to various masts that can "see" it.
It's even easier now since we send such information to all and sundry complete with GPS data via the apps on a smartphone.
We love this stuff and over the last decade have willingly started to tell anyone who wants to know all about out lives. So having a remote car butler seems like a small thing really. Should be good for an insurance discount I would think.
It probably takes quite a lot of thought, effort and planning to not be tracked these days - unless you are virtually "unregistered" as a person.
This is why the banks want to shut down retail banking and make cash obsolete and are encouraging the EU, et al, to support that change ASAP.
HSBC ramped up the speed of branch closures this week. They will likely be gone from the Retail banking world very soon in terms of a physical presence.
Recently they introduced security for on line banking using voice recognition rather than a password or thumb print or whatever.
Apparently it works very well and the feedback is that the punters love it.
Thus as the demography of "oldies" using their local bank branch changes and the fear of a computer is no longer a bar to having simple interactive secure on-line banking experiences, the need for a physical branch diminishes ... and the ability to know everything about everyone increases dramatically.
People love it. They even buy devices to spy on themselves. "Alexa" speakers for example. In-car (or on-bike) cameras. "Evidence" posted on YouTube. Who needs a police presence on the roads when people self report their indiscretions and vehicles can be configured to report their own problems?
We live in interesting times.
Do we feel safer for all of this monitoring?