New moves to track all road traffic in the UK and the US take their place amongst a host of privacy-threatening measures. J.J. King investigates the view from the blogosphere and beyond.

The Great Gatso

News hit the blogosphere last week that the UK is going ahead with the building of a 24/7 national vehicle movement database which will log all traffic on the UK's roads, retaining the data for at least two years.

According to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times and reported extensively in The Register, the system will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), in a 'Gatso 2' network that will extend, enhance and link existing CCTV and speedcam systems and databases. The idea, according to the Times, is to 'crack down on uninsured driving, road tax evasion and stolen cars' -- and also monitor millions of law-abiding drivers.

UK To Passively Monitor Every Vehicle:
slashdot.org
Gatso 2: rollout of UK's '24x7 vehicle movement database' begins:
www.theregister.co.uk
Spy cameras to spot drivers' every move:
www.timesonline.co.uk
Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey:
independent.co.uk
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Mistaken Identity

As Slashdot readers pointed out, placed alongside plans for the 'the hair[sic]-brained biometric passport ' and ID card schemes, the extension to detention without trial for 28 days, and a CCTV camera on every street corner (hell I even had one pointing at me inside a taxi the other day), the plans to monitor road activity present significant cause for concern. Indeed, the move toward 'Big national databases' has drawn criticisms from civil liberties campaigners such as Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, who suspects they may not be the 'new panacea of policing' they're presented as.

Blogger agrees.'We're just a small step away from cameras in schools, cameras in homes, or cameras in restrooms. And why not? 'It's part of public protection. If the security services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent.'

Indeed, says Kim Cameron at Identity Blog. 'We wouldn't want the security services to be negligent. And indeed, wouldn't it be negligent for them to stop at analysing the activities of a single car? Shouldn't the car be associated digitally with those who drive in it? And then with other cars they might drive, and in fact with their whole travel profiles on subways, trains and airplanes? And then, why stop there? Will there be any rules about how this information is stored and made available? About who can get at this information, and when? About whether a warrant is required?'

Security expert and blogger Bruce Schneier, meanwhile, suspects the surveillance will cause more problems than it solves. 'Once this information is collected, it will be misused, lost, and stolen. It will be filled with errors. The problems and insecurities that come from living in a surveillance society more than outweigh any crimefighting (and terrorist-fighting) advantages.'

Time for change: Damn Orwell:
awrind.blogspot.com
Kim Cameron's Identity Weblog:
identityblog.com
Schneier on Security: Vehicle Tracking in the UK
www.schneier.com

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1984: The New Name for 2007

Any gloating, on Slashdot or elsewhere, that the UK finally seemed more advanced in its Draconian Orwellianism than the US, didn't last long. Barely a week later, electronic vehicle tracking was announced in the US. Under the plans, the Federal Highway Administration will use small GPS devices inside vehicles to track their movements for 'taxation' purposes. As with the UK's system, however, the plans will present serious problems for privacy, and, reports CNET, invite 'constant surveillance by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.' There are no restrictions in place to prevent such continual monitoring, without a court order, the whereabouts of every vehicle on the road.

Demagogues should take note: even in the Conservative US, and even in papers of right-ish leaning, the 'revelation' that the US government has been spying on its own population without (specific) permission is causing a stir. It may be that technology allows government to capture more data than ever about its subjects; and it may be that those subjects don't immediately grasp how serious an impact on their liberties such activities might have; but when they do begin to feel the effects, it will be these same governments, and politicians, who must justify why our 2006 is shaping up to bear such close resemblance to 1984.

E-tracking, coming to a DMV near you:
news.com
Bush Backed Spying On Americans:
news.bbc.co.uk
Power We Didn't Grant:
washingtonpost.com
The Return of '1984':
commondreams.org