BBC News : Congestion charges face legal challenge

[David Hansen]

On 15 Jul 2002 at 13:36, Nexus wrote:

> "About 230 cameras will be used to take pictures of number plates,
> which will then be checked with a central database to see if the fee
> has been paid. "
> 
> Hmmm... one wonders exactly _which_ database this is

A database of those who have paid the fee.

For those who have not paid the fee then there are already ways of 
finding out where to send the bill. These are used all the time for 
other crime detection cameras and fining parking criminals.

> and who has access to it ;-)

A more interesting question. Various shady organisations already have 
their own database of motor vehicle movements, with the ring of 
plastic around the City of London being the best known example. That 
does nothing to prevent bombs being left in the City, but was useful 
to reassure gullible businesses who threatened to leave London some 
time ago.

It is possible to design such things to ensure privacy. However, 
computer systems tend to be designed for the opposite of privacy, for 
example library systems. Whether this is incompetence by the 
designers or part of a deliberate move is open to debate.


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  David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
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