New camera tech can detect blood and water content in your car. Ew.
By Paul Miller 
posted February 24th 2008 8:57AM
posted February 24th 2008 8:57AM
[Thanks, Richard W]
posted February 24th 2008 8:57AM
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I think we have different definitions of privacy over here in the US than they do in the UK. Here we get pissed if Wal-Mart wants to RFID every cheap Chinese tickle-me-elmo knockoff. We are stirred and angered and feel rebellious (I hope) when President Bush mumbles something about how warrantless spying on citizens protects us. We say we won't put up with it, and the presidential candidates agree.
Yet over there they've gone so far off the deep end that they are going to monitor the WATER AND BLOOD CONTENT OF HUMAN BEINGS to determine if they should be fined $100 or not. The land of a million cameras seems more and more unappealing.
I live in the UK and can tell you.... we now have cameras everywhere. They log your numberplate and track you everywhere you go. Last week I got a ticket $200 for stopping for thirty seconds to let someone out of my car in a no parking zone.
We have no rights or privacy in the UK. The UK has become one very large prison. The government now monitors everything it's citizens do. It now wants to censor internet traffic by forcing ISP to monitor and record all internet user activity. NOW, on BBC news they are reporting that they will want to take DNA samples from everyone for a DNA database.
They will shortly put facial recognition into its city cameras, so that they can monitor every human in the city. It's already too late. We are already captives. It's not that people in the UK are ok with it, they just know it's too late to change it. Look what has become of our free world.
That is incredibly depressing, Splattyman. I used to think the UK was more free than the US. The worst we have over here is a president and his crooked staff constantly struggling against our checks and balances (that are mostly working, I think), and the occasional tazed hippy. Sure, it smells a bit like burnt hair and hemp, but cameras don't get shoved up your ass until you're 50.
@Splattyman
I must ask: Does it really take 30 seconds for someone to get out of your car?
MEAT, my friend, it is indeed sad. But it is now too late for the UK. Our bins are also now inspected and our rubbish analysed. It's to make sure we recycle, but its really to continue spying. I coughtan inspector reading through documents which where in a bin outside a large house in hampstead london. They call them enforcement officers. They also use the millions of traffic cameras in london to watch people in houses. You routinely see the cameras pointed at windows, not the road. They also have Xray cameras installed that can see what your carrying in some highstreets that basically let operators see you naked. Cameras also record audio in many high streets that can listen to conversations over 200 meters away. Is this a democracy ? Is this freedom ? No. We are now just slaves in a jail, that are monitored and continually punished by fines when we dont do as we are told.
Hey man, can you own a shredder there? Because if you can, I would get one and just shred everything 10 times.
And they FORCE you to recycle? Aside from the dystopian society, that fucking sucks. Recycling is expensive and worse for the environment than just throwing shit away.
@ Jesse S
Care to provide some sources for that claim?
Penn and Teller's Bullshit. Recycling is subsidized by $8 BILLION a year. Only using recycled aluminum cans is cheaper than mining and refining more aluminum. Recycling paper requires lots of bleach and other toxic chemicals, as do many other recycling processes. Some also release harmful toxins into the air. Not to mention transporting all those recyled goods, using fossil fuels et al. Or running recycling facilities.
Nevermind that recycling was started because of some bullshit with a barge, making people think we were running out of space for trash, when in reality, the barge was just trying to find a cheaper place to dump its wares. Or an EPA report where it was fabricated that we were running out of space to put trash, when in reality, 1000 years worth of trash could fit in a 35mix35mi. (The US's trash, at least.)
Thanks for the uninformed insults. I reuse newspaper as bedding for small animals, or fire starts, or whatever. I use reusable water bottles. I recycle cans.
I bet that you're the kind of person that only uses paper bags because you think they're better for the environment than plastic. (Newsflash: They really aren't.)
So... Do they let the British people read/watch things like "V for Vendetta" or "1984" ??? Because it's clear that Mr. Moore and Mr. Orwell have come pretty close to predicting the future of the U.K. -- And that makes me sad, because if it weren't for the cameras and spying on their own people, I'd like to live there some day.
Oh well . . . There's always Denmark.
My first thought is they can use it (as previously mentioned) for drunk drivers.
I am torn on this. I hate drunk driving. I hate Government.
I don't know what I hate more. Risking the chance of someone dying or living without freedom. After 9/11 Americans gave up a lot of freedom in the name of safety. Enough is enough: education & awareness, defensive driving.... There are proven ways of reducing drunk driving. It's definitely not like it was in the 70's & 80's. There has been huge progress.
Umm... The story isn't about drunk driving. . .
Um.. I thought I was clear that I was worried they would use the technology to catch drunk drivers. I can read, thanks.
"Ma'am, are you aware that you were driving twelve miles per hour over the speed limit and that you're pregnant?"
Just like this, an X-Ray is an intrusive "camera" that has caused a whole host of problems not at all related to privacy concerns. Unlike an X-Ray, with this you're driving around in a 2000lb very hard pair of jammies moving very quickly. Hopefully this technology will only kill a _few_ people before they tweak it.
@Splattyman
I'd start throwing out my trash is those orange biohazard bags, if I were you.
Crap. Meant this as a thread reply.
@Jesse S
'...Recycling is expensive and worse for the environment than just throwing shit away.'
On what evidence exactly do you base this uninformed comment? You are probably the type of individual who 'throws shit away' along the highway in total ignorance that the plastic wrapping which you just cast out of the window, takes about 100yrs to decompose...
Please do everyone a favour and attempt try to use what little grey matter you do havebefore making such comments.
can it detect hooker blood in my trunk?
"Scanners aren't picking up any humonoid lifeforms. Then who the hell is driving???"
I loled
That was hilarious.
Huge invasion of privacy.
so you mean next time i'm moving bodies around town, it's not enough just to stuff em in the trunk, but I have to put them in lead casing as well?
what happens when paris and nicole are drivin, thats like as much blood/water as say 1/2 a person?
As far as drunk driving goes, if you want a real solution, all cars should just be made out of nerf. Suck one.
Everybody Loves Raymond don't they?
Bingo, hate the show but the girlfriend loves it and we all know how that goes.
So what happens when someone has a dumbbell and like 30 half-liter bottles of water in their trunk?
And besides, for people who think that this will actually be used in the US - it won't. It's an invasion of privacy as the 4th amendment has been interpreted, so police won't be able to use it for the same reason that they can't use a thermal scanner to see people in a house and thereby have probable cause for a search.
Now as for the drunk driving side-discussion in this thread... simple truth is that you can't really do anything more about it. Drivers are well educated and people are vigilant for drivers who are all over the road. Any kind of technology in cars is liable to lead to problems with false-positives, as has already been discussed and is also an invasion of privacy. Drunk-driving deaths are going down anyways, the ones that have been reported in my community are for the most part those of drunks going off the road and into a tree types, where they only hurt themselves (you shouldn't be so stupid as to to get into a car with a drunk driver).
Actually, it's probably not a 4th Amendment violation since you have little to no expectation of privacy about the number of occupants in your car while driving down the public highway.
You could argue both ways but case law more strongly supports a reading that use of this technology for this purpose is not an invasion of privacy.
You do have a reasonable expectation of privacy under the 4th amendment if your windows are tinted out.
These cameras arent only in development, they have gone live in the UK. It was on the news 2 days ago showing people getting pulled over for driving down the car share lane on their own.
"Do we really want to let the Machines have that kind of inside (literally) information on us?"
Another robot/machine overlord troll by Engadget. I'm beginning to think they -are- the machines.
"This car is fully loaded!"
"Yeah, it's fully loaded with dead hookers!"
-Dirty Work
I don't get this! What on earth are "carpool lane offenders"! Why are people living in such places! It's all a big joke, surely!