At 4:55 AM 8/9/96, i am not a number! wrote:

CBS radio news this morning: 80,000 commuters traveling the central f'way in SF will have information mailed to them regarding the quake retrofit blah blah.

How? Their license plates have been photographed. ... and the cheery "news" anchorwoman sweetly moved on to the next ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ story.....

Don't expect anchorbimbos to have a thought about anything. (*) Though it might have given her more pause if the story was about how 80,000 women in California are being mailed special information on birth control options because their license plates were photographed in Planned Parenthood parking lots.... It really ought to be illegal for any level of government to monitor citizen-units this way, for any purpose. By the way, it also underscores something we've talked about before: surveillance technology is moving so fast that the Chaumian idea of avoiding movement-tracking by "digital cash" may be impossible to achieve. You can spend your digibucks to avoid being tracked on a toll road, but their cameras will see your (mandatory) license plate and maybe even your face anyway. --Tim (* In the first "Robocop," anchorbimbo extraordinaire Leeza Gibbons, clone of Mary Hart, did a wonderful satire of bubbleheaded hairspray journalists.) Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."