
STTR: A system for tracking all vehicles all the time at the edge of the network - nuriaion
https://blog.acolyer.org/2018/08/30/sttr-a-system-for-tracking-all-vehicles-all-the-time-at-the-edge-of-the-network/
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d--b
It's so sad to see that PhD students spend energy thinking about how to
develop such policing systems. I don't understand it. Aren't these guys given
any ethics class ? They should use their systems in their labs, tracking where
everyone goes all the time, and store that data on one computer system
available to the dean of the university (and his friends, the IT guys, and
whoever knows about hacking)...

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jsty
Law enforcement might not be the only use for this (although it's the one that
springs most readily to mind). E.g. in London there's the congestion charge,
which would probably be much more effective in reducing congestion + emissions
(or at least loading more costs onto those causing the issue) by charging per
mile instead of a flat per day fee.

A system like this would make that possible without requiring a tracker to be
fitted to every car, although a growing number of people have these anyway for
a reduced insurance premium.

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purplezky
STTR is a system designed to track all of the vehicles all of the time, and
store their trajectories for ever.

Sounds like it's illegal in Europe due to the GDPR.

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ovi256
GDPR restrictions do not apply to government activity, only to private non-
personal ones.

~~~
purplezky
[http://blog-idcuk.com/are-public-sector-organizations-exempt...](http://blog-
idcuk.com/are-public-sector-organizations-exempt-from-gdpr-compliance-
absolutely-not/)

After further investigation it seems you are right though that exclusions can
be introduced for: * national security; * defence; * public security; * the
prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences; *
other important public interests, in particular economic or financial
interests, including budgetary and taxation matters, public health and
security; * the protection of judicial independence and proceedings; breaches
of ethics in regulated professions; * monitoring, inspection or regulatory
functions connected to the exercise of official authority regarding security,
defence, other important public interests or crime/ethics prevention; * the
protection of the individual, or the rights and freedoms of others; or the
enforcement of civil law matters.

~~~
candiodari
At least in the Netherlands, I believe a system like this has been in
operation for nearly a decade already. This is of course the only way to do
"trajectcontrole" ("average speed checking").

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number-
plate_recogni...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number-
plate_recognition#Netherlands)

And no worries: there are exceptions.

[https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2015/09/foreign-diplomats-
will...](https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2015/09/foreign-diplomats-will-no-
longer-get-traffic-fines-in-the-netherlands/)

(note: there are more exceptions, like the royal family and the prime
minister, but I couldn't find a good article pointing this out)

And of course, the same system is used to catch people with unpaid government
bills (started with just tax bills, but has since been expanded).

Interesting aside: the government itself, of course, refuses to pay it's bills
on time, instead having legislated that 2 months payment delay (and in some
municipalities more) is all that can be expected of government. And of course,
in any payment dispute with the government, private individuals and companies
have no such options for redress. If you are 1 day late with your taxes
however, you can be arrested and imprisoned, anything belonging to you can be
impounded and sold with no recourse and of course extra charges for you.

Police have access to the database of all car plates seen anywhere on the
system, and have of course been caught abusing this data, as well as using it
in many cases where there was no justification, as determined by a judge
afterwards. Needless to say, there is zero news on consequences for any police
officer for these for some reason.

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purplezky
The system of ANPR (Automated Number Plate Recognition) is also used in
Belgium. But the maximum retention period for ANPR data is 30 days. Storing
this data for an unlimited period is illegal by Belgian law. "Bewaartermijn
Indien de opgenomen beelden geen bijdrage kunnen leveren tot het bewijzen van
een misdrijf, schade, overlast of tot het identificeren van een dader, een
verstoorder van de openbare orde, een getuige of een slachtoffer, dan mogen
deze maximaal 30 dagen bewaard worden (De Schepper, 2014). Wanneer de beelden
wel bijdrage leveren in voornoemde gevallen, dan mogen deze langer bewaard
worden en dienen ze neergelegd te worden ter griffie. In dit geval gelden de
termijnen van het verval van de strafvordering. De beelden hebben dezelfde
bewijswaarde als een getuigenverklaring (De Paepe et al., 2012)."

~~~
candiodari
It seems to me utterly unrealistic that the police actually upholds this law.
It never, ever happens that a complaint is correctly fired within 30 days and
these images are occasionally reported to be used. The "griffie" is not
involved until there is an actual complaint, so those images or data from them
is no way deposited there. Furthermore, any action at the griffie will inform
the accused, which the police doesn't want to happen in almost any case until
they're ready.

This may be law, but it's ignored by law enforcement. I guarantee it. This is
totally unrealistic.

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nurgasemetey
Why vehicle info(plate, not video) can not be sent to server? I think that
trajectory can be computed much easier on a server.

