Techdirt. Stories filed under "tiburon" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "tiburon"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:31:00 PST Tiburon Approves Recording Every Car That Enters/Leaves... Despite More Evidence Of Traffic Camera Abuse In UK Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091123/1048117058.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091123/1048117058.shtml photograph and record the license plate info of every car entering or leaving the town. It kicked off quite a debate in the comments, and now comes the news that the town is moving forward with the plan, despite complaints about civil liberties and privacy violations. Of course, it's worth noting that just as this plan is moving forward, reports out of the UK are indicating that law enforcement there has been abusing traffic cameras for purposes well beyond traffic monitoring. They're using traffic camera images of traffic around political protests to note cars that appear at multiple such events, and placing them on some sort of terrorist "watch lists." Police are apparently going through the database of images and "marking" certain cars, which then allow them to be searched in the fight against terrorism. Not that there's a big protest culture in Tiburon, but this certainly shows how a simple traffic camera effort can escalate into something that is much more questionable from a civil rights standpoint.

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]]> feeling-safer-yet? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091123/1048117058 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:00:00 PDT Tiburon Wants To Photograph Every Car Entering And Leaving... But Don't Worry About Your Privacy Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090721/0440095610.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090721/0440095610.shtml set up cameras to photograph and record every car entering and leaving the town. It will also record and use the license plate info. If that sounds like a bit of an invasion of privacy, well, the town's Manager, Peggy Curran, insists you're just paranoid:
"As long as you don't arrive in a stolen vehicle or go on a crime spree while you're here, your anonymity will be preserved. We don't care who you are and we don't know who you are."
Actually, if you didn't care, you wouldn't be recording the info, now would you?

This is really just a variation on the "if you haven't done anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about" sort of claim. It's a fallacy that privacy is only about if you're doing something wrong. So, for folks up in Tiburon, who wants to follow Peggy Curran with a camera when she's walking around? As long as she doesn't do anything illegal, her anonymity will be preserved. No one cares who she is. They would just be making sure she doesn't go on a crime spree or steal a car. By her own logic, that's perfectly reasonable, right?

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]]> well,-phew... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090721/0440095610