I didn't realize that I was carrying around Big Brother

[Crash Cash]

Well what I also didn't understand is how they were getting away with this in Europe, where the data protection/privacy laws are a lot stronger than here. Turns out the Dutch aren't part of that, from what I can tell, and I know Australia isn't. If they tried that here, they'd be sued so bad, they'd be on a street corner selling pencils in a week, but Australia and the Netherlands don't have the number of lawyers to feed that we do.

I know Verizon keeps gigabytes of detailed logs of all my phone's connections to their towers, even if I'm not making a call or a data transfer. They need a high level of detail for troubleshooting, if nothing else. I don't mind, because I know they need to do it, and I agreed beforehand. I also know, as you say, that if the government comes looking, they make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

My problem with TomTom is them going "Oh, we're short of cookies in the Snr. VP lounge, let's pimp out some user data" on the spur of the moment, and dat just ain't right. It's not that it goes to the cops, as a matter of fact I'd be madder if it went to advertizing/marketing firms. Spam is a much bigger problem for me than traffic tickets.

I also can't throw stones because I'm posting this at 4am after 15 hours of hacking my Android phone to let me turn the GPS on programmatically, instead of going through the preferences dialogs framework.

Please also remember, a speed trap is not a bunch of cops enforcing the speed in an area. A "speed trap" is 'artificially lowering the speed limit in an area for the purpose of increasing violations.' As far as I know, speed traps as described above have been illegal here for years.

Oh I know of several small Florida towns that specifically don't do that, no siree, and they haven't been successfully sued for it either. Ahem. When the limit drops from 60 to 25, and there's 3 cruisers sitting a block from the intersection, I make sure I don't go 26.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Please also remember, a speed trap is not a bunch of cops enforcing the speed in an area. A "speed trap" is 'artificially lowering the speed limit in an area for the purpose of increasing violations.' As far as I know, speed traps as described above have been illegal here for years.

Oh I know of several small Florida towns that specifically don't do that, no siree, and they haven't been successfully sued for it either. Ahem. When the limit drops from 60 to 25, and there's 3 cruisers sitting a block from the intersection, I make sure I don't go 26.

That right there is some bullshit. What kind of jackass cop would actually issue citations in an area done up like that. I can't imagine a federal judge in our district would be very happy with us.

 

[Crash Cash]

That right there is some bullshit. What kind of jackass cop would actually issue citations in an area done up like that. I can't imagine a federal judge in our district would be very happy with us.

From what I can tell, it's how he gets his paycheck. Some of the really little town's budgets are funded by speeding tickets. I know one town where you come off a 60mph blind curving overpass right into a stoplight at the bottom of the hill and 20mph limit. When I was a college student regularly going home to Ocala, I saw so many smoking tires and sideways cars there that I specifically changed my route.

Apparently very few people have the balls/time/money/lawyer to follow the appeals process out of the small town's court where it gets to a judge that isn't paid by the tickets.

Then there are just plain hick cops. I got stopped in my Toyota Tercel in Oviedo and surrounded by all 4 of the town's cruisers for squealing my tires when I was turning through an intersection. When the cop told me that, I told him it had a bad transaxle and ALWAYS does that, no matter the speed. He looked at me like I just admitted shooting JFK. I held out my keys and said "drive in a circle around those gas pumps and listen"

Nope, they had to put me in handcuffs for speeding and aggressive driving, and called friends to pick me and the car up. So I said the same thing to the judge, we went to the courthouse parking lot, and the judge gave the cop the dressing down of his life. I got an official apology from the Oviedo PD.

We need a "facepalm" smiley.

 

[Crivens]

Not that I necessarily agree with this practice, but privacy laws would likely not be a consideration since they are providing aggregate data and not anything that could be used to identify a specific individual.

 

[HelzBelz]

Not that I necessarily agree with this practice, but privacy laws would likely not be a consideration since they are providing aggregate data and not anything that could be used to identify a specific individual.

Slightly off topic, only slightly, but I often wondered while traveling the Garden State Parkway on my daily commute why someday they wouldn't start issuing some kind of speeding ticket based on timestamps on my EZ pass statement...

 

[HotRodZilla]

Not that I necessarily agree with this practice, but privacy laws would likely not be a consideration since they are providing aggregate data and not anything that could be used to identify a specific individual.

Slightly off topic, only slightly, but I often wondered while traveling the Garden State Parkway on my daily commute why someday they wouldn't start issuing some kind of speeding ticket based on timestamps on my EZ pass statement...

I thought I had heard some tollways were already doing that. Any truth to it, or just ridiculous internet rumors?

 

[Crash Cash]

Around here, they don't issue speeding citations on the toll expressways unless you're totally doing the Marco Simoncelli bit, because they don't want to discourage people from using the expressway. They won't hesitate to stop you and give you a warning though, if you're being a dick, or doing stupid stuff in a construction area.

Jesus, I was doing 85 on 417 Wednesday, and people were passing me like I was pedaling the thing. I had a Porsche go by like Jeremy Clarkson on the Autobahn.

If you want to play couch cop, you can look at some of the 300-odd traffic cameras here