Comments on: Well, actually . . .

By: Mike Maurer

Mike Maurer — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:56:55 +0000

But we don’t need the GPS! If we don’t like that option, throw it out. Buy a blankety-blank toll bucket at Seven-Eleven and you’re fine. It’s the same as cash, which is to say, anonymous.

Now let’s talk about the cameras they’ll have at every intersection and every mile of the route . . .

By: token liberal

token liberal — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:45:09 +0000

Privacy is something of a myth in many ways. In addition to tracking your EZ Pass, government investigators can access your banking records, phone records, medical records, credit card and credit records, etc…

Still, at least at some level you can choose to wait in line and pay the toll, use cash, etc… It seems like taking it to another level to require a GPS to be placed in every vehicle.

By: Marc Schare

Marc Schare — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:37:20 +0000

In many states, privacy is a myth because people have willingly given it away for the convenience of not having to stop at a toll booth. The question is whether there is an expectation of privacy on a public street/road/school/building and the answer, increasingly, is no.

https://www.ezpassva.com/(S(irfw1kuoamgi5kzv01yraaee))/forms/privacy.pdf

By: Mike Maurer

Mike Maurer — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:29:52 +0000

Curse your triumphalism!

(BTW, I said $1.50 per mile, I meant $1.50 per gallon, which is about seven cents a mile, I’d guess.)

By: token liberal

token liberal — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:44:30 +0000

No need for electronic voting. My candidates recently fared quite well without it, thank you.

By: Mike Maurer

Mike Maurer — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:55:34 +0000

And yet I’m guessing you support electronic voting . . .

The privacy problem can be readily solved by avoiding GPS altogether. Just have units you buy for $10 cash at every convenience store and gas station, and as you drive it deducts a nickel each mile until it’s empty. We already have this sort of technology. You could capture cheaters the same way you do seat belt violators. There wouldn’t be any privacy issue at all. It’d just be electronic nickels. And given that they’re trying to get us to pay something like $1.50 per mile now, just to enable politicians to pay off their friends, we’ve got plenty of nickels to play with.

By: token liberal

token liberal — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:48:36 +0000

This is a creepy proposal. There is no way the GPS information won’t eventually be used to track people. First, it will be for Amber Alerts, then National Security, and then something else, etc… Imagine–it would be against the law to drive anywhere without an activiated GPS unit in your vehicle, transmitting your every location. Hello, Big Brother!

BTW, why are roads so special that they have to be paid for by some sort of use tax (gas tax, GPS units, etc…)? Don’t we all benefit from roads even if we don’t personally use them? I pay the same school taxes whether I use the schools. In fact, I pay taxes for almost everything regardless of my use of a particular item or service.

In any event, if I get to choose between having generalized taxes pay for roads, or having the government be able to track my every move–that’s an easy choice!