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Texas Bill Would Put Transponders In Every Car

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the you-have-no-privacy-anywhere dept

Wed, Apr 6th 2005 2:19pm — Mike Masnick
Bob Dole writes "The vice-chairman of the Texas House Transportation Committee has figured out how to do away with those nasty camera tickets. He has introduced a bill to require all state inspection stickers to store and transmit information about you and your vehicle to roadside machines. If the information in a newly created database of every auto insurance policy in the state says your policy is expired, you'll be mailed a $250 ticket. If that ticket gets lost in the mail, don't worry because you won't get another one -- your license and registration are automatically suspended for six months." Seems like a similar plan to ones in California and Oregon to require a GPS device in every car that would report on where you drove so the state could more accurately tax you for driving. Clearly, the idea that you might have some right to privacy concerning where you go doesn't seem to register much with certain state government officials.
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  • identicon
    dorpus, 6 Apr 2005 @ 2:46pm

    Amber Alert

    It would sure make solving child abduction cases easier.

    Why are Americans so obsessed with "privacy"? Do they have so much to hide?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      dumpus, 6 Apr 2005 @ 4:20pm

      Re: Amber Alert

      You have no idea dumbass.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 7 Apr 2005 @ 10:07am

      Re: Amber Alert

      Why is our government so concerned with secrecy? Does it have so much to hide?

      If the president and his staff can hold close session discussions with Enron, we should be allowed are "trade secrets" as well.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous of Course, 7 Apr 2005 @ 10:34am

        Re: Amber Alert

        The expectation of privacy in a person's personal matters is as old as the constitution. Maybe we should ban postal envelopes, forcing everyone to correspond via post cards for the convenience of the government? After all, honest people have nothing to hide. No, the question is how far shall the bureaucrats be allowed to abridge our right to privacy. The more that's known the easier it is to control- and it's all about control.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Vik, 7 Apr 2005 @ 3:12am

    it would help...

    Getting access to this new database would help to track the idiot who introduced it to one of the local 'massage' salons and post his whereabouts on the web. We'll see how long that database would live after that :)

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jason L, 7 Jun 2006 @ 3:48pm

    nothing to do with our safety

    This will become a way to charge you tax when you drive from one place to another. If you think about it a little more, it is a way to prevent us from free travel in the US, so it the artificial increase in gas prices.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Jun 2006 @ 3:50pm

    correction

    so is the artificial increase in gas prices.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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