Schneier on Security: License Plate “Guns” and Privacy
Posted on October 18, 2004
Bruce Schneier writes on the changes technology has wrought on surveillance.
Schneier on Security: License Plate “Guns” and Privacy
“Throughout our nation’s history, we have maintained a balance between the necessary interests of police and the civil rights of the people. The license plate itself is such a balance. Imagine the debate from the early 1900s: The police proposed affixing a plaque to every car with the car owner’s name, so they could better track cars used in crimes. Civil libertarians objected because that would reduce the privacy of every car owner. So a compromise was reached: a random string of letter and numbers that the police could use to determine the car owner. By deliberately designing a more cumbersome system, the needs of law enforcement and the public’s right to privacy were balanced”
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