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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMeta Data is Dossiers by Another Name
Reports of the Death of a National License-Plate Tracking Database Have Been Greatly ExaggeratedBy Dan Froomkin17 Mar 2014, 4:03 PM EDT
In a February 19 front-page story, the Washington Post appeared to be breaking news of yet another massive federal surveillance program invading the privacy of innocent Americans.
The Department of Homeland Security, the story said, had drawn up plans to develop a national license-plate tracking database, giving the feds the ability to monitor the movements of tens of millions of drivers a particularly intrusive form of suspicionless bulk surveillance, considering how strongly we Americans feel its none of the governments business where and when we come and go.
The next day, however, the Post called off the alarm. The plan, the newspaper reported, had been canceled. Threat averted. Move along.
But the Post had gotten it all wrong. DHS wasnt planning to create a national license-plate tracking database because several already exist, owned by different private companies, and extensively used by law enforcement agencies including DHS for years.
*snip*
Whats the problem with a nationwide license plate tracking database, anyway? Crockford recently asked and answered that question in her blog:
If you arent the subject of a criminal investigation, the government shouldnt be keeping tabs on when you go to the grocery store, your friends house, the abortion clinic, the antiwar protest, or the mosque. In a democratic society, we should know almost everything about what the governments doing, and it should know very little to nothing about us, unless it has a good reason to believe were up to no good and shows that evidence to a judge. Unfortunately, that basic framework for an open, democracy society has been turned on its head. Now the government routinely collects vast troves of data about hundreds of millions of innocent people, casting everyone as a potential suspect until proven innocent. Thats unacceptable.
*snip*
Vigilant Solutions has several dozen videos on YouTube, including this one, which shows how its system builds a comprehensive dossier on a person simply by inputting a license plate:
In this video, the ACLU imagines what location tracking might look like in the future:
[iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/51BNnVn_CvQ?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen][/iframe]
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(End of Article)
Meta Data is far deadlier to your rights than you can imagine. With the right algorithms, they can profile you for anything- given enough time. As one person said 'if you get enough dots to connect, you can design any pattern'. What if one of these private contractor's having a bad day and just wants to fuck with or destroy someone they know/hate or don't even know just for spite? Dossiers are long kept files for POWER and nothing else, IMO.
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Meta Data is Dossiers by Another Name (Original Post)
Titonwan
Mar 2014
OP
Titonwan
(785 posts)1. I've copied and pasted other YouTube videos
and they appeared here, complete (and not blue links, like above).
Don't know what happened.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)2. did you copy and paste from the address bar or directly from the video?
Titonwan
(785 posts)3. I'm afraid I copied the address bar
So I copy directly off the screen of the youtube video? Thanks, for response.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)4. In Mozilla if I copy the URL from the video all I get is the blue link
If I copy from the address bar it puts the video there.
Titonwan
(785 posts)5. Figured it out.
I'm in Safari and if I copy url while watching video, it copies as a link and NOT a hyper link. (no http// on front). This places the video here. If you don't start video and copy address bar- it will NOT display as a video embed. For some odd reason, it puts the hyper link (http//) on the front of videos. Oh well- it works now