Opinion
Britain’s vast camera network is being used to secretly surveil drivers, privacy experts warn
From LifeSiteNews
Big Brother Watch reported that U.K. number plate recognition systems are recording vehicles at an unprecedented rate, warning that police have been given access to this data and raising significant concerns about personal privacy and civil rights.
The use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) in the U.K. is now reportedly producing mass surveillance on a truly massive scale – cameras are capturing number plates close to 44.5 times per second.
That translates to more than one billion times a year, privacy and civil rights group Big Brother found out via freedom of information act (FOIA) requests, that concerned eight local or regional authorities.
This makes for “one of the biggest surveillance networks in the world,” is how the group summed up the situation.
🎥Number plate recognition cameras run by local authorities enforcing green driving schemes are capturing cars more than a billion times a year, according to our own analysis.
More than 110 million entries a month were recorded by just eight local or regional authorities Clean… pic.twitter.com/jbGB8Ep026
— Big Brother Watch (@BigBrotherWatch) November 5, 2024
APNRs are there to enforce green driving schemes (Clean Air Zones, CAZ; in London, this is known as the Ultra Low Emission Zone, ULEZ) by deploying mass surveillance and collecting data on drivers that can be retained for up to a year.
And this comes on top of the police capturing number plates for their own purposes, said to be happening billions of times per year.
The declared reason for the use and proliferation of surveillance cameras in these ULEZ-like schemes is to control how much emissions drivers are allowed to create. The authorities have the right to charge penalties – but in thousands upon thousands of cases, reports say this is based on erroneous data.
Data hoovered up by APNRs is connected to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). One of the fears privacy advocates have is that this data will be used for purposes other than protecting the environment and that this is already happening as some of it is available to the police.
According to Big Brother Watch, Birmingham City Council had struck a secretive, and apparently ongoing, deal with West Midlands Police before the 2022 Commonwealth Games which let the police access the council’s ANPR network.
The response to this FOIA request, however, did not specify how much data was given to law enforcement thanks to this agreement, which the privacy advocates say, provided “unfettered access to number plate data.”
Meanwhile, Transport for London (TfL) data captured from 163.2 vehicles driving past its live CCTV cameras was requested by the Metropolitan Police between August 2023 and June 2024.
“Millions of innocent people’s car journeys are captured by automated cameras every day and this level of surveillance is a threat to everyone’s privacy,” warned Big Brother Watch Head of Research and Investigations Jake Hurfurt.
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.
Daily Caller
Climate Change Fanaticism Was The Big Election Loser
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Stephen Moore
A few days before last week’s election, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a dire warning to voters. If Trump won, “the struggle against climate change will be over.”
He had that right.
Climate change fanaticism was effectively on the ballot last week. That green energy agenda was decisively defeated.
It turns out the tens of millions of middle-class Americans who voted for Trump weren’t much interested in the temperature of the planet 50 years from now. They were too busy trying to pay the bills.
The result shouldn’t be too surprising. Polls have shown climate change ranks near the bottom of voters’ concerns. Jobs, inflation and illegal immigration register much higher on the scale of concerns.
But if you asked the elite of America in the top one percent of income, climate change is seen as an immediate and existential threat to the planet. Our poll at Unleash Prosperity earlier this year found that the cultural elites were so hyper-obsessed with climate issues, they were in favor of banning air conditioning, nonessential air travel and many modern home appliances to stop global warming. Our study showed that not many of the other 99 percent agree.
Wake up, Bernie and Al Gore.
Climate change has become the ultimate luxury good: the richer you are, the more you fret about it.
Among the elite, obsessing about climate change has become a favorite form of virtue-signaling at the country club and in the faculty lounges. There is almost no cross that the green elites — the people who donate six figures or more to groups like the Sierra Club — aren’t willing to make lower income Americans bear to stop global warming.
Herein lies the political curse of the climate issue. A millionaire doesn’t care much if the price of gas rises by $1 a gallon or if they have to pay another $100 a month in utility bills. But the middle class hates paying more.
It wasn’t just economic concerns that turned the voters against climate crusaders like President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Workers weren’t too thrilled with the heavy fist of government commanding them to buy an electric vehicle — whether they wanted one or not.
It hasn’t helped the greens’ cause that the same progressives who are out to save the planet with grandiose transformations and global government, seem to have no problem with the garbage polluting the streets of our major cities or the graffiti or the feces and urine smell on the street corners of San Francisco and New York. That’s real pollution. And it’s affecting us here and now.
The good news is this year’s voter revolts against the radical green agenda are not a vote for dirtier air or water. The air that we breathe and the water we drink is cleaner than ever — a point that President Donald Trump correctly made. We will continue to make progress against pollution.
To try to sell middle America on the climate-change agenda of abolishing fossil fuels, the greens peddled bogus arguments that climate change would hurt poor communities most. In reality the financial costs of the climate policies and the paychecks lost were felt by the non-elite.
Democrats forgot to visit the steel-mill construction sites or the auto plants or the oil patch and ask those workers what they thought.
Well, now we know the reality. Americans think their shrinking paychecks and the higher price of gas they pay at the pump is the real clear-and-present danger. If Democrats don’t start to get that, they too will go to bed worrying about their jobs.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity. His latest book is titled: “The Trump Economic Miracle.”
Digital Currency
Conservatives urge Canadians to reject mandatory digital IDs proposed by Liberal gov’t
From LifeSiteNews
Canadian federal regulators have disclosed they are working on digital credentials for Canadians despite the fact MPs have repeatedly rejected the proposal over safety concerns.
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) called on Canadians to resist and oppose “mandatory digital ID.”
“He’s (Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) trying to encroach on your freedom and privacy, again. The Liberal government has been CAUGHT trying to create a mandatory digital ID,” the CPC said in a recent email to members.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canadian federal regulators have disclosed they are working on digital credentials for Canadians despite the fact MPs have repeatedly rejected the proposal over safety concerns.
Shared Services Canada, which is a federal IT department, is developing “digital credentials” like Social Insurance Numbers, which one needs in order to work.
The CPC has launched a petition that anyone can sign calling for Canadians to “oppose” any such digital ID system.
“This Liberal government can’t be trusted to protect confidential information. They have already been HACKED and scammed, costing Canadians hundreds of millions of dollars,” the CPC said.
The CPC noted that Trudeau is “trying to win re-election through TOTAL CONTROL.”
“Canadians do not want more intrusive government surveillance,” the CPC stated.
CPC leader Pierre Poilievre is opposed to digital IDs as well as a federal digital dollar, which seems to be on hold for now, and has promised to introduce a new online harms bill that would “expressly prohibit” digital IDs in Canada.
The Trudeau government is trying to push through laws affecting Canadians’ online freedoms such as Bill C-63 that seeks to punish “hate speech” online.
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