Ain't this just peachy? I can see some government control freaks salivating in the US over this and planning the day they can implement something similar here. The good news is that total coverage by CCTVs in the US would be decades away and it's impossible to keep the govenment's attention and gravy train going on a single project for longer than a few months. This would run out of gas long before it could be completed... I hope. Besides, there have to be better technological ways of doing this.

Meanwhile, poor Brits. This is way over the top for a free society. This will turn into a monster. I worked with OCR and ICR technology for three decades and it still isn't ready for prime time.

License plates WILL BE misread. A 98% OCR/ICR read-rate, or accuracy-rate, is about as good as it gets. That means the 100,000,000 plates the system will read per day will result in 2,000,000 misreads. The result?

This system tracks cars when the implementers really want to track criminals. The result?

Potential misuse and abuse is incalculable. Scary stuff.

 

we got this thing here in too, and there is a certain transparent license plate cover that can make that camera scratch its head.

if the ragheads takes the bus, then there is no data to check.

 

A couple of good points. I guess Britain has already forgotten about the subway attacks? Or more likely, they consider it politically incorrect to protect the subway system since the Muslims have already shown a preference for attacking it. It would be racial profiling to protect the subway now.

In future cars, they could use OBDIII, the GPS system, and a cell phone to locate and inform on cars. This has already been discussed as a possibility. As well as, it could not only tell where your car is and report on its location, but it could also report you if your car is speeding, running stop signs, or if your car is breaking any emissions laws. You'd get a ticket in the mail for any infraction and your car could be remotely disabled if the emissions were bad enough. Doesn't matter who's driving.

 

Forget the government. Corporate spying on citizens is just as rampant. You can't go shopping without turning up on some camera some where. Have you noticed that MOST of the criminals caught in the act of abductions and the like are captured on private cameras? Timothy McVey was caught (seen) by a private camera. The government cameras missed him.

I am with you. I don't like the idea that everywhere I go I am being monitored, all in the name of public safety. automated systems have no judgement, which by law is a required oversight for enforcement proceedures. So, I disagree with there use. Local goverments using photo radar are guilty of this. Errors in these systems are "worth it" to governing counsels because of the revenue they produce. They are tax collection machines. What can WE do about this?

 

Corporate spying on citizens has a different purpose. It isn't to harass, control, or hasten the detention of citizens. They want my money and are trying to determine what I like and put it in front of me so I notice. They aren't collecting info to use against me, just in case I happen to do something wrong in the future. I still don't like it, but it's mostly harmless, IMO.

The more common video recordings are from security systems. Private citizens trying to protect their assests. I have no problem with this.

Police and the rest of the legal system may use privately collected data as evidence in cases they're investigating. I don't necessarily have a problem with this either because they would be focused on a wrongdoer, even if the wrongdoer is not yet known. They wouldn't record and save everything they viewed just in case someone on a tape recording, for example, might do something wrong in the future.

It all seems like a slightly different version of the movie, The Minority Report.