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Cameras in UK for Toll Enforcement

Posted by Cliff on from the smile-you're-on-candid-toll-camera dept.

cosyne writes "Saw this story on BBC News about charging people £5 per day to drive in central London. The interesting part: they plan to use surveillance cameras to snap liscence plates and compare to a database of people who paid. That's the same as stopping terrorism, right?" We mentioned this issue in an earlier story. It's an interesting challenge: the UK authorities have a problem (too much traffic in London) which is not susceptible to the usual solution (too many ways into London, can't put tolls on all of them) and so they're looking for new solutions - except most of the possible solutions are privacy-invasive in one way or another.

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  1. Privacy by saphena · · Score: 2, Redundant

    except most of the possible solutions are privacy-invasive in one way or another.

    Here in the UK, a variety of new laws have made protection of privacy paramount in almost all private and commercial transactions. Pretty well the only exceptions allowable are those that the government has allowed itself.

    There are currently new rules being made which allow almost any government department, QUANGO, or local council to overrule the privacy laws for almost any reason.

    Big Brother rules OK!