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Comment by overcast | Hacker News Reader

You could argue the "privacy" factor and I get it, but I don't really see a problem with this. You're already registered with the state, and the license plate identifies you. You chose to break, evade the law, and not pay your fines. Everyone else obeys the law. So you get pulled over, pay the fine, and be done with it.

I'd consider taking it a step further in the efficiency department. If someone doesn't follow up with a ticket after ninety days or whatever, auto debit their account. Thoughts?

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The privacy issue isn't about you being identified as someone who has an outstanding fine to pay. The privacy issue is that the readers are collecting and storing data about EVERY vehicle on the road. That data is then used not only by the police, but also by a third party private company that can do with it as they will. As the article clearly states it is entirely possible to extrapolate where a person goes to the dentist/doctor/work/sleep/etc from this data. And, to top it all off, the private company that receives the data reserves the right to keep the data for as long as it is 'commercially viable' to do so... i.e. as long as there's someone else out there willing to pay them for it.

I'd call that a pretty major issue.

That "efficiency department" wants 25% over the debt amount AND unlimited usage of the collected data until it's "commercially viable". The latter part is especially outrageous.

Any idea how much simple tickets cost after compounding for months/years? They'll end up costing multiples of the original. This sounds like a win for both sides.

Tickets should not be used for profit generation. It's a form of punishment and determent.

Plus, for how long +25%? For the time it paid off the system or perpetually? Is there a price on other "commercial" usage of collected data?

Nobody said it's a 'lease to own' situation with the system. Never mind that it includes computing time and server-side calculations and database access so chances are it is a system that is simply being 'leased' to the police at the cost of 25% added value to all transactions made possible through it.

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