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Police and Lawyers Love E-ZPass
John_Schmidt writes "The AP is reporting that police are using EZ-Pass records to solve crimes. Lawyers are also getting the records to use in divorce cases. The article also mentions that the NYS Thruway has sensors to read the cards along the highway (not just at toll booths) but says the data is scrambled and not stored."
How soon before:
You passed between milepost 1 and 15 in under 6 minutes, here's your speeding ticket.
Convenience? Privacy?
Convenience? Privacy?
Decisions, decisions.
This is even worse than having to have a LICENSE PLATE! I don't want anyone else, (LET ALONE POLICE!) knowing who I am.
I realize you meant that as a joke, but some of us don't want our whereabouts known at every second of every day. This has nothing to do with paranoia (beyond the standard healthy dose), or a penchant for illegal activities. I just don't want my every move tracked.
Also, realize that this has a huge potential for abuse... I go through a toll perhaps once a month. If I had one of these EZ Passes (or the local equivalent, the TransPass), I would not notice for up to a month if someone stole it and had earned me quite a bit of debt. Now, even aside from the bill, what happens when my TransPass record for the past month shows me regularly visiting a mistress, or a crime scene, or some other place I've never gone, all because someone thought ahead of time to cover their tracks and use a stolen TransPass? Yeah, suuuuuuure the police/divorce-attourney will believe someone nabbed by pass and I just didn't notice...
This boils down to the classic argument about speed cameras - they don't prove a driver, just a vehicle. Although some may justify the inconvenience (personally, I find it reprehensible) of getting a ticket after loaning out your car to a friend, the situation goes from "annoyance" to potentially "pound-me-in-the-ass-prison" or "lose-everything-to-ex-wifey" when records like these suffice as "evidence" of the actual driver in court. I do not consider that even remotely acceptible, nor should any of us.
Nicely put sir, I wish we had more posters as informed. It is truely alarming how few people in this nation even realize the Constitution was primarily limitations on the government, not limitations on the citizens... as it is often interpreted today. Even less feel obligated to take any sort of action, but thankfully, as you pointed out, a good many of us feel the need, and fufill it, to atleast get our voices heard, through this public moderated media that /. has created, wisely, for this amung many other reasons. Continue to post bravely sir, and keep up the good work!
Atrox
-Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
"There is no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to track down criminials. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so things to be a crime that it is impossible to live without breaking any laws."
-- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.