According to the Independent (UK):
Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.
Steven Taylor observes:
this underscores a key difference between European and American sensibilities: we are currently having a major debate over whether the NSA should ever listen in on the domestic end of an international phone call with a suspected al Qaeda operative, and the British are to keep records of where everyone is driving.
I must confess: those traffic-light cameras make me itchy, so this would be enough to give me shingles.
Kevin Drum asks:
The Independent mildly suggests that a few civil liberties nutbags might be concerned about this, but they don't even bother quoting anyone. The British seem to be surprisingly unconcerned about this. ...
Do you really believe that police aren't going to use this for random fishing expeditions against people they just don't like? Do you also believe in Santa Claus?
I wonder how long it will take before they start using this technology to automatically hand out speeding tickets. In any event, it does seem like the etirety of the West is going through a period in which the civil liberties for which our ancestors fought are slowly being eroded in the name of safety and security.
