hedgehog

Interesting report from Australia, especially in light of the fact that it is an Australian owned company who runs the M6 Toll and they have just bought all the ITV transmitter sites with the possibility that they will use these to receive GPS position information from your car:

Australian Government keeping secret database of people who criticise
policies

Courier Mail | Feb 15 2005
THE Northern Territory Government is keeping a secret database of
people who criticise the Government or its policies, it was learned last night.
The files viewed by the Northern Territory News contained hundreds of
names, party affiliations, their jobs or roles and a record of their
comments to talkback radio.
Opposition Leader Denis Burke yesterday accused the Martin Government
in Parliament of acting like 'Big Brother'.
"It's one thing keeping files on politicians but it's another keeping
files on ordinary people," Mr Burke said.
"It's like 'Big Brother'. What about privacy? We certainly never had
anything like this when we were in government."

Although this lists "party affiliations" some of the people involved were not actually affiliated with any party that they knew of, quite often this information was inferred from their perceived political position.

I hope those of you supporting similar systems being introduced by the current administation are going to enjoy them, especially when the opposition gets into control.

unclebuck

Fair dinkum mate. If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear.

Except of course that 'they' decide if 'they' think you *might* have something to hide because of the perceived affiliations that 'they' have decided you have.

It reminds me of that chief constable in this country who claimed that motorcyclists are more likely than others to be involved in criminal activities simply because they own and ride a bike, and are thus deserving of increased police attention.

UB

hedgehog

I agree that it is truly amazing. There may be people posting on motorcycling forums, or writing letters to MCN about totally innocent aspects of motorbike engine design, for example, who are being logged in a database as anti-establishment or "likely terrorist."

The greens might be logging people who post on here because we, generally, support private transport and performance cars. In 10 years time the greens come to power, or gain control of another major party and all of a sudden something you said 10 years ago about piston slap determines whether you can get a visa to visit America.

Of course I've nothing to fear because I have never done anything wrong.

While there have always been fears about Big Brother and technology has never quite been able to fulfill the paranoia. Now that the technology is catching up it is interesting that concepts I would have considered nutty, such as the administration monitoring the media and logging your views, are now happening and that the people doing it are, frankly, not too concerned that we know they are doing it. We are going to be controlled whether we like it or not.

Oh, I believe that some Trevor McDonald TV show tomorrow night is going to be about ISA. This is probably the first testing of the general public with the concept so it should make interesting viewing. ISA will happen, be under no illusions, but the administration are currently testing the waters to see how best to "sell" it to us.

carl

ISA?

hedgehog

Oops, sorry.

ISA = Intelligent Speed Adaptation which is basically electronic control of your car and the speed it can travel at. The administration, through the DfT, are mapping the country for this system and the mapping will be finished in September of this year. Already there are at least 20 test cars on the road running the system.

Your car will be fitted with a GPS receiver and a map of the country (just like sat-nav) which will be speed lmit aware and which will ensure that you car can not exceed any of the posted lmits. The administration have also said that dangerous areas, such as what we might deem entertaining bends, will have lower limits applied than the posted limit. So, a twisty road that is a national speed limit might see your car limited to 30mph by the ISA system.

Consultation with the manufacturers has been going on for some time and many modern cars already have the wiring for this system.

It is likely that a range of checks will be put in place to ensure you don't disable the system. Precisely what these will be is not fully clear yet but it seems probable that your GPS data will be logged centrally to both determine average speeds and also to allow for road use charging. It is also likely that your number plates will have a sort of radio ID tag embedded in them which can be read by roadside systems.

The company likely to be doing the data logging of your positional information have just bought the ITV transmitter masts and it is thought they might be going to use these to receive the GPS road use data from your car. Either that or broadcast "Road Toll TV" which seems like a highly unlikely business venture.

unclebuck

I also heard that the system will be used to determine things such as your motor insurance charge, which will become based on your road usage patterns.

For example, if you drive a Subaru Impreza or similar performance car and you enjoy driving into town on a Friday or Saturday night you will be deemed a higher risk than say somebody who commutes daily in an a similar vehicle which remains garaged at night. Therefore you will pay a higher premium.

This of course can in turn be used to control the social behaviour of people who are deemed to drive ‘for fun’. Essentially they will be priced off the roads by punitive insurance charges.

UB

Flatcapdriver

If you think car drivers are treated unfairly in the UK, then just wait for Oz style policing and criminalising of the motorist to get to the level that drivers enjoy there. I've got A$2000.00 outstanding from the last time I was there due to the draconian and ridiculous levels the cops will go to in order to generate revenue. I got caught twice on a road with the nearest town 40km away and you can also kiss goodbye to your rights as an individual if State/Territory laws ever come to being in the UK whereby local authorities can in effect re-write the statute book to suit their own ends.

Leslie

Well that is the sort of thing that can easily happen in the not too distant future. I think it is a terrifying likelihood.

I would be very surprised if a database is not already in existence noting all those who have criticised those in power.

I would imagine that UB and I will be at the top of the list.

See you in the Tower UB!

Les, and I am not laughing.

unclebuck

Tonight with Trevor McDonald

In the second of a two-part special on road safety, vehicle designers explain how cars can now be made much safer for drivers, passengers and pedestrians

Hedghog is right again. I'll shall be watching this with interest and recording it as I suspect this may be a rich source of quotes.

UB