Police State
Yet another reason why I wouldn't want to live in England:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/pub_fingerprints/
They are forcing pubs to fingerprint all their patrons. If they don't, they are not allowed to operate.
Granted, they don't have to pay for the fingerprinting, but I'm pretty sure it's a hassle to have at the entrance. Not to mention the tracking capabilities of the system itself. A major breach of privacy, I say. Based on the article, I can see what kind of advantages they are looking at, but it boils down to this: This system would be just as effective by requiring people to show ID when they enter a pub (which is done in a lot of other countries to verify that the patron is old enough to drink). "But id's can be faked" you say. True, but then again so can fingerprints. Atleast the digital fingerprint readers that are available today, and I really doubt that this would be an ink-on-paper system. Who would want to walk around the pub with blackened hands.
I'm an opponent of virtually any unwarranted registration of behavior. Sure, I use my debit card almost anywhere. They can register and track my purchasing behavior, but it's a choice I make, because of the convenience it offers me. It's also highly voluntary.
Thomas Jefferson once said "Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."
I could not agree more!
I think that more and more people are arbitrarily giving up their freedoms and being suckered in to that this will give them more security. This is almost never the case. Perceived security is NOT the same as actual security. It's also gotten to the point where the population doesn't have any means of standing up to the government if they start legislating away our basic freedoms. I know that modern societies don't storm the castles of the rulers with torches and pitchforks, but we should have a social equivalent of showing our displeasure with how our country is being run. Elections just aren't enough. Elections are good, but they are essentially making us choose between the lesser of two evils. I'm not saying that I have a solution to this problem, and there might not be one. I do, however, wish that the government would be more careful with our civil liberties.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/20/pub_fingerprints/
They are forcing pubs to fingerprint all their patrons. If they don't, they are not allowed to operate.
Granted, they don't have to pay for the fingerprinting, but I'm pretty sure it's a hassle to have at the entrance. Not to mention the tracking capabilities of the system itself. A major breach of privacy, I say. Based on the article, I can see what kind of advantages they are looking at, but it boils down to this: This system would be just as effective by requiring people to show ID when they enter a pub (which is done in a lot of other countries to verify that the patron is old enough to drink). "But id's can be faked" you say. True, but then again so can fingerprints. Atleast the digital fingerprint readers that are available today, and I really doubt that this would be an ink-on-paper system. Who would want to walk around the pub with blackened hands.
I'm an opponent of virtually any unwarranted registration of behavior. Sure, I use my debit card almost anywhere. They can register and track my purchasing behavior, but it's a choice I make, because of the convenience it offers me. It's also highly voluntary.
Thomas Jefferson once said "Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."
I could not agree more!
I think that more and more people are arbitrarily giving up their freedoms and being suckered in to that this will give them more security. This is almost never the case. Perceived security is NOT the same as actual security. It's also gotten to the point where the population doesn't have any means of standing up to the government if they start legislating away our basic freedoms. I know that modern societies don't storm the castles of the rulers with torches and pitchforks, but we should have a social equivalent of showing our displeasure with how our country is being run. Elections just aren't enough. Elections are good, but they are essentially making us choose between the lesser of two evils. I'm not saying that I have a solution to this problem, and there might not be one. I do, however, wish that the government would be more careful with our civil liberties.
posted by Markus at
10/22/2006 11:59:00 AM
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