My Favorite Business Resources
- Cheap Business Phone Service - Make phone calls anywhere for free or darn close to it.
- Cheap Printing - Always amazing deals on cheap printing with loads of free items.
- Manage Mobile Phone Costs - Great phone for controlling cell phone costs for business or teenagers.
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My Favorite Credit Resources
- Consolidate Your Debt - One monthly payment. Stop collection calls.
- Help Budgeting - Online and easy.
- Lower Your Car Payment - Refinance to reduce your monthly payment.
- Credit Report / Credit Score - This consolidated report is better than most.
- Credit Cards - Find the best card for you for low rates, balance transfer, credit rebuilding and rewards.

May

2008

If You Are Passing Through Manchester, You Are Being Watched and Tracked.

Posted by Steve Rhode as Uncategorized

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So I saw the following story on the BBC and my initial reaction was that it made me cringe. Now, one argument is that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about but knowing that your every move is being tracked and stored by the government just doesn’t give me the warmest and fuzziest of feelings.

Records stored are records which can be un-stored and while I can’t see how it would hurt me, how much monitoring and tracking are we each comfortable with? How about you, how do you feel abut being tracked if you pass through Manchester, UK by car?

So now if you travel to Manchester, your vehicle movements are tracked and if you use a credit or debit card, your purchase movements are tracked. Should we even have an expectation of privacy, moving forward?

City cameras to catch every car

The information will be stored on a central computer for five years

Almost every car travelling into Manchester is being snapped by a new network of police surveillance cameras, it has emerged.

Each day, 600,000 motorists’ journeys are being captured, and police will store the data for five years to help combat terrorism, crime and car theft.

But civil rights campaigners said they believed it was another step closer to a “Big Brother” state.
Police said the new system would bring “enormous benefits”.

Manchester is the first city outside London to use Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras in this way.
Police will store details of the licence plate, colour of car and a time stamp on a central computer.

The cameras have been installed on the 12 major routes into the city.

‘Protect communities’

The system records vehicle details and checks them with the Police National Computer, the DVLA database in Swansea and also local police intelligence databases.

It can identify stolen vehicles, track cars used by terrorists, criminals and banned drivers and spot car tax and insurance dodgers.

But civil rights campaigners fear the system means drivers are being subjected to “mass surveillance” as they go about their daily business.

James Welch, legal director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: “We have no problem with its use to locate vehicles whose owners police firmly suspect of having committed an offence.

“But it shouldn’t be used for mass surveillance, or to target people the police have a hunch are up to no good.”

The fixed cameras began operating this month, with details - not photos - fed to the national database.

They scan details of cars travelling at up to 100mph.

Greater Manchester Police also uses mobile ANPR systems in patrol cars and there are fixed cameras in other places, including the Trafford Centre, the largest regional mall.

Assistant Chief Con Dave Thompson said the fixed cameras “will bring enormous benefits and aid us in protecting our communities”.

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Steve