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The Canadian Taxman Goes Browsing on eBay
Kaneda2112 writes "A story in the Globe And Mail points out that the Canada Revenue Agency is now trolling eBay Canada for high volume sellers — looking to make sure eBay's biggest users are accurately reporting their income. They've successfully gotten a court order for the names, addresses, and other personal information for that website's biggest users. 'Canadians spend about $5-billion online each year and eBay is by far the largest electronic marketplace, accounting for about a quarter of the total sales. The site was visited by nearly 11 million Canadians in August, according to company figures. The CRA said in court filings that it is targeting people who qualified for eBay's PowerSeller program in 2004 and 2005. Only top eBay sellers can qualify for the program, which provides benefits to members. Those benefits include prioritized customer service, special promotions and sales tips.'"
The majority of people who bitch are the very people the gear is meant to catch. And they're not really pissed off because of the supposed violation of privacy, it's because they know they won't get away with their previously bad behaviour.
Bullshit. Those cameras are there to increase government revenue plain and simple. After the initial installation cost there is very little additional cost needed to keep the money rolling in. If they were required to put a human police officer at every intersection they felt warranted a camera, the cost ratio would decrease to a point where it wouldn't be worth it to them anymore and thus unnecessary in the first place.
If they want to protect us from the evils of speeding and yellow-light/red-light running, then they ought to be prepared to pony up the dough for a uniformed police officer to stand there 24/7/365 to catch those evil people and write them a ticket. Otherwise, keep your fucking nose out of everyone else's business.