City Council Ordered To Stop CCTV In Taxi Cabs 101
judgecorp writes "Southampton Council in the UK has been ordered to stop snooping on every taxi cab in the city. Privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office has said it is "disproportionate" to demand that every Southampton taxi has CCTV that constantly monitors driver and passengers, including recording all conversations."
Part of the reason... (Score:5, Interesting)
I live and work in the UK and I cycle everywhere. Part of the reason is precisely because it's difficult for the government to interfere with your business. The way I see it, the fewer interactions I have with the government the better.
If you take public transport, you're on CCTV everywhere. Naturally, you can be subject to searches when leaving train stations or even in bus stations.
If you drive a car, at some point you're going to get pulled over. You're going to get a ticket of some sort with high probability.
With cycling, there's no tax to pay. No fuel to pay for. There's no real way to be stopped and searched on a bicycle.
Often, it is faster than a car journey anyway.
Cycling is probably one of the only remaining modes of transport that is truly free in both senses of the word.
Re:who ARE these people?? (Score:2, Interesting)
What surprises me is why anybody needed to explain to them why this was a bad idea. Are they completely incapable of thinking these plans through before pushing ahead?
Somebody in the council has some relatives or protegees at a company supplying or installing those cameras? You know... one doesn't need to invent the whole TSA to waste some budget.
Re:Still not as bad as the UK (Score:2, Interesting)
I've helped installed a few of the "Captured by Askari Taxi Security Camera Systems" (used by cabcharge in Queensland in response to the given bashing) a few years ago and the data recorded is nowhere near as bad as the OP suggests.
The system only records infra-red JPEG images (with GPS and timestamp) of the inside and outside doors upon the following conditions:
- The brakes are applied hard
- The door opens
- The meter is payed
- 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after the panic button is pressed (in 5 second intervals)
These might have changed in the last few years but I doubt it.
I don't think that matters. People object to the very presence of these cameras to begin with. The irony in all of this is that the people responsible for the explosion of CCTV cameras in quantities that repressive communist security services could only dream of back in the day are the same ones who agitated against communism based on the fact that it was a police state that restricted your freedom and invaded your privacy. The reality is that when I am in the UK for example I feel just as spied upon as back in the days when I visited the East Germany where having certain types of conversations near a telephone or inside public buildings or hotels could trigger a visit from the police.
Re:Believe it or not... (Score:4, Interesting)
Automatic CCTV numberplate recognition algorithm will automatically fine you for stopping on a (double) yellow line for more than a minute...
As a Londoner who has to use those roads, good. People selfishly stopping on main roads to pop in and buy some fags and a paper continually snarls up the traffic in this city. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen roads backed up because one asshat has parked up forcing the traffic from 2 lanes to one, causing huge congestion and waisted time for everyone. All because they cant be arsed to drive an extra 10meters and pull into one of the side roads to park. Gah.
When I'm mayor (you never know! I mean who'd have though Boris would have got in!) all main roads will be red routes and at least the first few spaces in all side roads will be limited time free parking to accommodate the local businesses. /rant
Taxis in finland (Score:5, Interesting)
I drive a taxi in finland and each and every one of the taxis has a camera, a GPS logger and a sealed fare meter and gps navigation. For myself the gps and camera are features that I'd never do the work without. The camera installs in itself lowered taxi robbings and muggings to nearly zero, only leaving the people on drugs or alcohol who attack or try to rob taxi drivers.
The gps is also a huge safety feature as when the panic button is pressed all of the others cars in town see me in their gps navigation and everyone near me comes to help. I'd never work in a company that covers the cameras or doesn't have the gps logging. Also the data in the camera is stored on an external server and is really hard to get to, requiring a police warrant to even see the data. I can only see a live feed from the camera in the car to adjust its angle.
Of course in Finland the whole taxi industry is regulated by the government and the local cities, so that enables the huge security brought on by the GPS logging for the driver. Also as the taxi fares are calculated by GPS and by car speed data, and the fares are set by the government, as a passenger youi never have to be afraid of getting cheated with the meter.