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I was thinking the same thing. If Google start logging license plate numbers (and, hey, it's Google), they could build a database of known dangerous vehicles an
by tablatom 11y ago
I was thinking the same thing. If Google start logging license plate numbers (and, hey, it's Google), they could build a database of known dangerous vehicles and automatically give them a wide berth.
- drhodes 11y agoAt that point they'd necessarily have some way to quantify dangerousity. There will be a ranking. Somewhere deep in the bowels of google, there will be a list, Top Ten most dangerous drivers. Google is about to get into the car insurance business.
- platinum1 11y agohttps://google.com/compare https://google.com/compare
- ams6110 11y agoSo it's OK for Google to record license plates, but it's flip-out time when the police do it?
- mildbow 11y agoOf course. The most google can do: send you ads for shovels. The most police can do: pull you in for murder because they correlated your car to where and when some body was buried.
- scott_karana 11y agoI like how in your examples, "Google" is just algorithms, not the humans behind them, but for the police, you allow for humanity. You may as well say, "the most police cameras can do: send you an automated speeding ticket", which is of course painfully naïve. Google could do plenty of evil with your data.
- mildbow 11y agoCan you give me some examples of what google might reasonably do with my data that can negatively affect my life to the same magnitude as what the police/government might reasonably do? Ideally, maybe no one should track my every move. But to talk about police and google in the same sentence in terms of ramifications is so far off I can't be anything but incredulous :)
- oldmanjay 11y agofarfetched and unrealistic at the moment, but totally plausible: compile a list of destinations you visit on some sort of schedule, commit some physical crime along that path during a time you can be shown to be in the area, and frame you for it, potentially by including things like relevant search data, falsified emails... lots of possibilities here.
- mildbow 11y agoHahaha. And you think this is something google might reasonably do? Fuck. If you are around the NoVA/DC area let me know. I'll buy you a drink just so I can get a good laugh :)
- phaemon 11y agoPolice and Government should be two different entities, but if you're living in a police state then you're probably right. Otherwise, what Google could do is, say, record your dangerous driving (maybe that one time you were rushing a friend to hospital and ignored some speed limits). And then, every time a potential employer googled your name, they would see this "dangerous driver" notification. And you have no way of removing this, there's no statute of limitations, there's no way to correct it. For the rest of your life, that's the first result anyone sees when looking up who you are. That's what Google could do.
- mildbow 11y agoagain, my point wasn't so you could think of what Google "could do". But, rather contrast what Google might reasonably do and contrast with what the police might reasonably do. But hey, feel free to over-react on google, but not about lack of gov. oversight.
- aidenn0 11y agoThe police can subpoena Google's records, and now Google is just a proxy for the police.
- mildbow 11y agoSure. But that requires atleast a subpoena. So there is atleast some expectation of due process. Which means Google or any other company can push back. Failing that, something like Snowden can happen. Contrast that with police collecting that data and not requiring any, however made-up, oversight.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- adrianN 11y agoThat would probably be very problematic here in Germany.
- pluma 11y agoUnsolicited bulk data collection. How American. Good luck trying to make that work in places with privacy laws.
- malka 11y agoYeah, that really prevented google from doing business in the EU.