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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.
Let's just get those RFID tags injected into our necks and get this over with. It is inevitable.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
This could work both ways. Give your EZ pass to your buddy(or clone it and attach it someone's car) and send them on their way.
STOP ROCK VIDEO
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.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
One Pass To rule them all
One Pass to find them
One Pass to bring them all
And in the darkness, bind them
Thank you, Sir Rudy Giuliani, former NYC prosecutor, for pushing the E-Z Pass on us when you were NYC mayor, yapping about "court orders" and "due process" for access to the data. Now you can see all the motorists on the East Coast shining in your Palantir.
--
make install -not war
Select the 85 percentile of that for the speed limit.
Enter politics, so write down 55 or 65 no matter how safe the road is.
Oh, and the standards used for road speed is still 1950's vehicles on skinny tires, no matter that even cheap cars have anti-lock brakes.
So yes, if speed limits had ANYTHING to do with what the roads could bear, perhaps we're respect the signs. Again: if the laws were based on reason (*cough*), they'd be respected. When speed limits are imposed because to raise ticket money, then it's wrong and the authoritive gov't needs to be kicked in the knees for it.
And instead of the police enforcing safe driving by ticketing people cruising along in the leftmost lane without passing anyone, or for lane changes without signals, or for eating/phoning while driving taking important attention away from piloting a 3000lb SUV at 90 feet per second...
No, they'll enforce "speeding laws" only.
Clearly, when I'm on a Calif Superhighway with few people on it - a road that's larger and its in better shape than parts of the autobahn I've seen - clearly, it's only safe for 65 when going 110 on the autobahn was almost dangerously slow. Because a sign says so.
Give me a driving test that 40% of the people fail the first time they try it, give me road that you have to have the "proven able" license to drive and I'll go for it.
RE: EZ Pass? It's in a lead bag (for film) in the glove box when I'm not going through a toll booth.
After our officials "promised" and swore up and down it would only be used for tolls, NJ and NY authorities have been caught MANY times abusing this.
Ready for your implanted RFID yet sir?
Bend over now
The parent may have an extra dose of soma for his obedience.
The E-Z Pass comes with a mylar/metallic bag (looks like a typical anti-static bag) in which you can place the unit if you don't want it to be detected (e.g., if you elect to pay cash at the toll booth you won't be charged on your EZ Pass account). That's why I just place it on the dash when I go through a toll, then I put it away.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
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.
"most recorders store only limited information on speed, seat-belt use, physical forces, brakes and other factors."
"gives critical data about speed, breaking and seat belt use."
"Generally, all newer cars with air bags are equipped with modules that determine when the bags are deployed."
and, the piece de resistance, from your last link:
Gosh, no GPS. Funny thing. Ya don't suppose those boxes might NOT have been meant for Keeping The Man On Top(TM)?
Gosh, it's unthinkable. Quick, put the tinfoil hat back on. They's a-coming.
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
"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.