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One Day, You’ll Have a Chip in Your Rear

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Posted on Sep 12, 2010
AP / Pat Sullivan

By T.L. Caswell

Did you ever sense, for just a moment, that an unseen someone or something was watching you? Well, often the feeling is just a feeling, nothing more, but that doesn’t mean there never are eyes trained on you from a distance. In an era of rapidly expanding technology, government and others are finding new ways to surreptitiously observe traffic, and one day your own automobile license plate will probably become their accomplice by sending out a radio signal.

Civil libertarians worry that in coming years more and more so-called radio frequency identification (RFID) data will be gathered from highways and streets as Americans take trips or go about their daily business. What underlies the concern is the widespread technology that currently is following the movements of countless animals, humans and inanimate objects.

The uneasiness was fed more fuel this year by a controversy over California legislation calling for a feasibility study of “smart” license plates. Although the digital system cited in the legislation differs from RFID and wouldn’t be intended to track motorists, many Californians feared that a first use of electronics in auto plates would open the door to mandatory devices that would allow government agents to follow cars and trucks via signals transmitted from the vehicles. Public uncertainty surrounding the system and its capabilities helped drive the argument against it.

Senate Bill 1453, which would empower the California Department of Motor Vehicles to have the study done, hit a dead end in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in August, but nevertheless in the minds of privacy advocates it remains a bad omen. Even without the bill, the notion of high-tech plates is alive and thriving: It is being nurtured by the many police officers, elected officials and bureaucrats in California and elsewhere who are locked in a love affair with the potential of the technology.

If present trends are borne out, you will have a smart plate of some kind on your car in the next 10 years or so. Already, smart plates are in use abroad, and the U.S. federal government has disclosed its interest in the possibility of having such an apparatus on motorcycles as well as cars and trucks.

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In the system outlined in SB 1453, a series of scrolling advertisements would appear electronically on your back license plate, in order to be viewed by the driver and passengers behind your vehicle. If your car was moving, only the plate number would be shown, but when the vehicle was motionless for more than four seconds, an ad would materialize; a commercial image (or maybe a public service announcement or a personal message) would be displayed until the car started to move again. The images would resemble those on computer monitors, and the plates, in the words of the legislation, “would access messages from a ‘computing cloud’ or other wireless network. …” 

Thousands of print publications and websites had a good laugh, or a racking cry, over the now-moribund proposal, and in July the Los Angeles Times put on its brass knucks and proceeded to beat the stuffing out of the measure. The newspaper denounced it as a “low-brow” scheme to raise money by selling ads and declared “it would be ugly and cheapening to fill California’s streets and neighborhoods with millions of mini marketing ploys. California might as well change its official nickname to the Sellout State and its official motto from ‘Eureka’ to ‘This space for rent.’ ”

Among the Times’ allegations: The devices would be road hazards because they would distract drivers. Hackers could invade the wireless system and exhibit pornography or rogue messages. The system would theoretically open the way to tracking vehicles and perhaps taxing them on the basis of miles driven. Repugnant organizations like the Ku Klux Klan might have the legal right to advertise from the back of your car.

The author of SB 1453, state Sen. Curren D. Price Jr., who represents a diverse swath of the Los Angeles area, replied in the L.A. Times to the newspaper’s criticism, starting by quoting writer Victor Hugo “as saying that there is ‘nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.’ ” He countered the editorial on several points, factual and otherwise, and argued:

California should not be late to the discussion of this emerging technology, whether it is used for public service or commercial messages.

… [T]his technology is coming of age, whether or not the government gets involved, and we are obligated to test it to see if it is appropriate for use on our roads. After all, California is the nation’s hub for technological innovation. …

In effect he was saying: This is the future, people—get used to it.

The possibility of such a future leaves many Californians and other Americans upset even though they know Price’s bill will not advance this time around. They fear a day when voluntary, “opt-in” electronic displays on license plates will have evolved into mandatory requirements for digital ads on all vehicles or for RFID devices that would subject every driver to souped-up tracking.


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By caravan insurance, March 5, 2012 at 9:05 pm Link to this comment

It is no secret that governments would like as much control of their citizens as possible, even though their slogans are free will, free speech and freedom of choice. Having the ability to track the habits and whereabouts of the people would give the government so much control, and would make their jobs much easier. For safety, what lengths would the government go?

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By Jeremy_Hughes, December 28, 2011 at 1:07 am Link to this comment

Privacy advocates would have a tough fight on their hands if the law enforcement agencies and politicians set their sights on this emerging technology. It would just take another major terrorist act involving stolen cars or any major crime involving vehicles to send the law into a frenzy in adopting this technology.

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By purplewolf, September 15, 2010 at 7:08 am Link to this comment

Call Me Roy: This RFID thing was ongoing during the Bu(ll)sh(it) administration so you really cannot put it all on Obama.

Why do repukes keep putting Bushies legacy,which he claims to be proud of onto the current prez? Like Michelle Bachman keeps claiming that the FEMA re-education camps were done during the Obama administration. REALLY?, where was her brain,I have an idea, during the 8 years of the repugs reign of terror from the last administration, she was in office then. Was it something in the kool-aid they were drinking then that has made them all brain dead?

Hey Michelle, check out REX 84 and find out what did go one from 2001(Jan) to 2009(Jan) under repug rule, then go sit down. In the corner along with your dunce cap.

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By tedmurphy41, September 15, 2010 at 1:59 am Link to this comment

This prediction seems to have been taken from the novel “1984” by George Orwell.
You Americans seem to be sleepwalking towards this type of scenario.

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By Maani, September 14, 2010 at 9:23 pm Link to this comment

BarbieQue:

You’re welcome.  I also forgot to note that there is a growing connection between RFID implants and cancer in rats, dogs, and humans.

Re .sol, didn’t know that one.  But do know that Google reads ALL of your emails (i.e., gmail), or at least filters them for “key words.”

Here is Albrecht’s site.  Must reading for anyone interested in this subject.

http://www.spychips.com/

Peace.

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By call me roy, September 14, 2010 at 8:45 pm Link to this comment

I am surprised more people don’t know about RFID’s?
I think everyone should realze by now, whats going on. Look people, the “Anointed One” makes his chess move’s and us babbling humans need to realize that the unbelieving conspiracy “heathen” understate the issues when they say that Obama is a radical. Alas, they know not the secrets we are all going to witness. The “Anointed One” is amazing, he takes the people at the highly efficient Post Office and sends them right over to the Student Loan Program. The “Anointed One” knows all. Twitter messages were machine-gunned to cell phones at mach speed. Facebook and MySpace groups spread across the Internet like digital fire. YouTube videos featuring celebrities ricocheted across the globe and into college students’ in-boxes with devastating regularity. All the while, the Obama mega-money-raising engine whirred on at high speed, until the result became inevitable: an unthinking mass of young voters marched forward to elect the “Anointed One.”
I am not surprised to hear these stinking lies about our “Anointed One,” it should be apparent to anyone that this was coming down the pike. I do have a couple questions about future process steps concerning these developments? When the “Annointed One” decides to start bar-coding everyone, will we get to decide if the mark is on our hand or forehead? Allot of people will prefer the hand, (especially women of course), unless your a porn actress or something along those lines. Also, my girlfriend was wondering if the Administration will be getting fashion advice from Hollyweird or the New York City crowd? We are both agree that the Administration “Maoies” as the “Anointed One ” so lovingly calls them,will be getting uniforms similar to the SS uniforms in Germany in WW2. With big letters abreviating “Barack’s Socialists.” So shall we start calling them the BS?

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By BarbieQue, September 13, 2010 at 10:42 pm Link to this comment

Maani: Thanks for the reference.

I just got a new credit card and if I hadn’t watched that Pitchman show on whatever channel it’s on (hey I’m easily entertained) I never would have looked twice at it.

But that program showed a $10 card reader, apparently available on ebay, being held by someone who was reading credit card info as he passed by people on the sidewalk. So I looked closely at my new card and lo and behold, there’s a wireless logo on the top left, and close inspection of the card itself shows a RFID chip embedded. A great new way to steal numbers, unless you purchase the thing Pitchmen were selling, which was basically a foil enclosure for the new cards. It would have been nice of the bank to notify me that I’m basically broadcasting my name and number to anyone with a reader. Or maybe they did in that 1/16 inch type that everyone always reads but me.

On another note, most everyone that has FLASH or ADOBE pdf reader installed on their computers is being tracked on the net without their knowledge or consent. (apparently illegal in England)

You can see the hidden stored cookies on your machine by searching all files/folders for *.sol

I worked on a friends computer the other day and there were probably 4 or 500 of these flash cookies.

If anyone wants to get rid of them or learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Shared_Object

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By Maani, September 13, 2010 at 8:47 pm Link to this comment

I was just at a conference with Katherine Albrecht, one of the world’s leading authorities on RFID and personal spying.  You NEED to read her stuff.  She also talks about tracking via the Internet, particularly Google, which is far more evil than you would probably like to believe.

Peace.

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By Queenie, September 13, 2010 at 7:12 pm Link to this comment

There will probably be an alarm system built into the chip if we get too close to certain “gated” communities. “WARNING…WARNING.. COMMONER APPROACHING!!!”

I may be off the mark here, but I see this as just an extension to the whole “branding” phenomenon. Try to buy a product today without having to remove some damned free advertising tag/status symbol - if you can.
If this is the future then all members of our government should be made to wear stickers displaying their corporate masters.

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By purplewolf, September 13, 2010 at 11:34 am Link to this comment

Tycho: They probably have already been putting RFID’s in all newborns since it was first perfected, in other words, several decades ago. Hell, the whole population of the US probably has been chipped and don’t even know it. Any shot given to you could have also placed one of those chips into you.
As for the advertising, it has gone past ridiculous on TV, ads during the programing just before and after the ad breaks. I take note of that and do not buy those products or watch the shows that place their unwanted extra ads where they don’t belong. The local non-city buses, supported by the taxpayers anyway, are displaying advertising on the sides of the buses, some totally covered including the windows and tops of the buses. I also refuse to purchase those advertised products. However, those companies pay the bus companies to advertise that way.

So if the states force people to buy these mobile advertisement license plates, they should be made free to all drivers period. As I am certain these companies pay the state to use/abuse the people who own cars where this crap would be displayed.

What are they going to do for the people whose license plates display unwanted advertising that it looks like we all will end up having to have on our cars. Will they give us free license plates, pay for the car insurance for us, give us money so they can advertise their crap on our cars? If they cannot do one or all of these things for the person whose car is now a mobile billboard, it should be illegal to have for profit companies advertising on you car or anyone elses advertising for that matter. If I want to show any support for any product or anything else for that matter, I will choose what it is and not some bigwig corporate rat, who will be the beneficiary of forced upon the license plate advertising.

If this is made mandatory, people should show their displeasure of making their cars look like a rolling pimpmobile and now use or buy the advertised products, in fact let’s boycott them instead. And throw out the politicians suck=ups who will let this happen just to line their pockets.

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By samosamo, September 13, 2010 at 9:51 am Link to this comment

****************


““We cannot drop our guard as new technology comes into play.
If we doze off, we will wake up stripped and shivering in a world
that is mercilessly crass and where privacy is only a quaint
memory from another time.”“
*****************

That is unfortunate because the average american addicted to
msm hoopla is in a continuous ‘dozed off’ position that insures
that more control of people’s everyday lives will happen while at
the same time happy time advertizements will be playing on a
‘redundancy’ system as most every new car these days have
computers/gps in them which are susceptible to and accessible
by satellite tracking.

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By artboyz, September 13, 2010 at 7:59 am Link to this comment

EZ pass has been used by law enforcement officials to track people so, I’m sure
this will be thoroughly abused as well. Proving once again that freedoms cannot
be taken away if you hand them over willingly. Teabaggers take note.

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By tycho brahe, September 13, 2010 at 7:18 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

These tiny chips will soon have sensors for measuring the levels of alcohol, nicotine, drugs of abuse and any other chemicals the government wishes to detect in the citizens of this country. Sooner or later there will be a law requiring that they be inserted deeply in the bodies of newborns at birth so that everyone can be identified. If, at some time in the future, a biochemical marker for homosexuality can be identified, there is no doubt that a detector for it will be included in the chip. The concept of personal privacy will no longer have any meaning.

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By earthwirehead, September 13, 2010 at 4:03 am Link to this comment

...for a moment, I thought you were talking about *my* rear—not the aft end of the automobile I am happier every day not to own.

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By Leefeller, September 13, 2010 at 2:48 am Link to this comment

I suppose someone already mentioned this; Gives new meaning to the saying….. “A Chip off the old block”! By the way, this should be like on the Titanc as it was sinking,... Libertarians and Republicans first!

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