Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Several cities in the US were firebombed nightly for months in 2020. What? What is this referring to?
Portland, amongst others.
Yeah, Portland was basically wiped off the map.
Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
151–160 of 268 posts
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#152I'm surprised my idea from 10 yrs ago hasn't been monetized. It was an lcd cover that could be made in license plate size, with a remote controller which could dim/darken/blackout the cover. Or in Deluxe mode, activate lines randomly which would result in a different number. Then again... somebody is out front in this technology space. https://www.newsweek.com/what-are-digital-license-plates-how...
I have seen a video of someone doing just this on a car. I'm not sure if it was a commercial product or if it was something they hacked together.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#153I'm surprised my idea from 10 yrs ago hasn't been monetized. It was an lcd cover that could be made in license plate size, with a remote controller which could dim/darken/blackout the cover. Or in Deluxe mode, activate lines randomly which would result in a different number. Then again... somebody is out front in this technology space. https://www.newsweek.com/what-are-digital-license-plates-how...
I’m not. You’re describing a spectrum from a traffic ticket in some states (CA will cite you for darkening) to a misdemeanor or even a felony for falsifying or obscuring your license plate. Yes, you can still buy darkeners in the areas they’re illegal, but nobody is going to invest in developing a misdemeanor machine for sale. There’s a difference between a sheet of dark plastic and an engineered device.
The digital plates thought of this in their design. You can think of them as frontend UIs for your jurisdiction’s motor vehicle authority, even though a private company is working on them. They will snitch when your tags lapse, both visually and electronically (that’s their purpose), and won’t let you do what you’re proposing if they’re designed correctly.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#154I'm surprised my idea from 10 yrs ago hasn't been monetized. It was an lcd cover that could be made in license plate size, with a remote controller which could dim/darken/blackout the cover. Or in Deluxe mode, activate lines randomly which would result in a different number. Then again... somebody is out front in this technology space. https://www.newsweek.com/what-are-digital-license-plates-how...
maybe because the device could subject both the buyer and the seller to criminal prosecution?
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#155I'm surprised my idea from 10 yrs ago hasn't been monetized. It was an lcd cover that could be made in license plate size, with a remote controller which could dim/darken/blackout the cover. Or in Deluxe mode, activate lines randomly which would result in a different number. Then again... somebody is out front in this technology space. https://www.newsweek.com/what-are-digital-license-plates-how...
I'm not surprised, it sounds illegal for the purpose you described. It's illegal just to own plate flipping devices without even using them in some states. Surely that would be too.
> A person commits an offense if the person with criminal negligence uses, purchases, possesses, manufactures, sells, offers to sell, or otherwise distributes a license plate flipper. An offense under this subsection is a Class C misdemeanor, except that the offense is a Class B misdemeanor if the person has previously been convicted of an offense under this subsection.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#156Theoretically, could this same principle be borrowed by the open source community… to create a database that tracks and updates the location of police, government, military, and high status individual vehicles? I’m thinking of a decentralized, Web3, IPFS-like distributed database, but instead of file storage, it’s real-time geolocation with OSM on the backend.
Yes technically, as long as you know the license plates, but how often do those vehicles park in a commercial places like that? I don't think they do often enough for this kind of tracking to be useful
Good point. It would become dramatically more useful if netizens just ran license plate scanners on their dashboards that regular report the timestamped geodata of marked/government vehicles.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're talking about filming major roads here. "Motion activated" effectively means running 24/7. No way a built in solar panel in a camouflaged trail camera will manage that. Also it doesn't matter how small the device is, if you legally want to attach a camera to any sort of infrastructure overlooking a road, then yes you need permits you almost certainly will not get. You could possibly attach it to a pole on priva…
I suppose it depends on the jurisdiction. For instance, some courts, like the 9th District Court of Appeals have ruled that cities can't remove homeless camping on public property. Public forests are public, and there's lots of trail cams. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/court-ruling-homless...
Forcibly moving living people and removing unattended property are entirely different scenarios.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#158The DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) had revolving licence plates. A cursory Google search comes up with some shady websites that sell similar tech, but it would be a nice DIY project to make a licence plate screen that can be changed on the fly (e-ink based maybe). Has anyone tried it?
A really good hack to get around the fact that motor vehicles are by law easily traceable is to...just take mass transit.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#159In my country, the EasyPark app seems to have taken a lot of the market. Almost every parking space I see now has it as an option, including spaces owned by the city. Thankfully, they currently still support paying with cash, but machines often don't return change and only accept coins, so they can be inconvenient. It's shocking to compare the privacy aspect of the app: instead of anonymously throwing some coins into…
> They're not hiding this: It's explained in their GDPR privacy notice that they track and store your phone location and travel routes even when you're not using a parking space.
What you're describing sounds illegal. Under the GDPR they cannot collect personal information that's not strictly required for the service the customer is requesting. Unless they have express permission and the customer isn't denied service for refusing.
Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose it depends on the jurisdiction. For instance, some courts, like the 9th District Court of Appeals have ruled that cities can't remove homeless camping on public property. Public forests are public, and there's lots of trail cams. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/court-ruling-homless...
Forcibly moving living people and removing unattended property are entirely different scenarios.
Yeah, the issue with those who are homeless is that it essentially criminalizes living for people who cannot rent or own, and thus infringes on their liberties.
There’s no right to hang up privately owned cameras in public.