Re: Drive the SF Central Freeway, have your license plate photo'ed.

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 4:55 AM 8/9/96, i am not a number! wrote:
>CBS radio news this morning: 80,000 commuters traveling the central
>f'way in SF will have information mailed to them regarding the quake
>retrofit blah blah.
>
>How?  Their license plates have been photographed.
>... and the cheery "news" anchorwoman sweetly moved on to the next
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>story.....

Don't expect anchorbimbos to have a thought about anything. (*) Though it
might have given her more pause if the story was about how 80,000 women in
California are being mailed special information on birth control options
because their license plates were photographed in Planned Parenthood
parking lots....

It really ought to be illegal for any level of government to monitor
citizen-units this way, for any purpose. By the way, it also underscores
something we've talked about before: surveillance technology is moving so
fast that the Chaumian idea of avoiding movement-tracking by "digital cash"
may be impossible to achieve. You can spend your digibucks to avoid being
tracked on a toll road, but their cameras will see your (mandatory) license
plate and maybe even your face anyway.

--Tim


(* In the first "Robocop," anchorbimbo extraordinaire Leeza Gibbons, clone
of Mary Hart, did a wonderful satire of bubbleheaded hairspray
journalists.)




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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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