wow: Automatic Licence Plate Recognition surveillance in BC

[James Knott]

Stewart C. Russell wrote:
> On 12-02-05 01:20 , D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
>> <http://www.focusonline.ca/?q=node/312>
>>
>> This may well apply to us to.
> Bit of an outragefilter there:
>
>   I think people should be outraged,” commented my fellow researcher
>   McArthur. “The public needs to know what’s going on...The concept that
>   somebody’s going to record where I was, at a point in time, for no
>   reason, with no probable cause, with no warrant, with no anything...
>
> It can recognize where your car is/was, at any point in time. Not you.
> Your car. And that's why we have licence plates - great big reflective
> legible things in strictly defined OCR-friendly typefaces - because we
> do not drive by right.
>
> I predict hilarity ensuing with that 95% accuracy thing, though.

The problem is that info can be used to track the driver of that car.  
In most cases, that will be the owner, but certainly could be others.  
However, that technology is already used on Hwy 407 and people who have 
never driven on it have been denied licence plate renewal because of 
errors.  Also, many people carry a cell phone these days.  How would you 
feel if the police monitored everywhere you went, by tracking your cell 
phone?


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