UK builds vehicle movement database
The Register has an article on the UK government’s plans to build a vehicle surveillance network along the country’s roads:
A “24×7 national vehicle movement database” that logs everything on the UK’s roads and retains the data for at least two years is now being built, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times. The system, which will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and will be overseen from a control centre in Hendon, London, is a sort of ‘Gatso 2’ network, extending. enhancing and linking existing CCTV, ANPR and speedcam systems and databases.
This will doubtlessly be useful in the war on terror. Even a public as tolerant towards public surveillance as the British might start to find this a bit overdone. I’m taking the train, thank you very much – until they start taking my fingerprint when I buy the ticket.