Another Government Data Collecting Program

Posted by: Sarah Pitta Posted date: July 17, 2013 In: . Sarah Pitta | comment : 0

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It’s bad enough the IRS is reading your email. Then there is the NSA collecting millions of data. On top of that Microsoft gave the NSA access to many applications such as Hotmail, Skype and Skydrive. Now there is a another government spy program. This program is collecting millions of records on drivers. Police departments now have automated scanners which obtain digital records of vehicles parked or passing.The scanner captures a image of the vehicle plate and stores it. The location will be saved in a police database. These records know the exact location of each vehicle and can keep the record for any length of time. This time could be days, months or even years.
Law enforcement agrees with this system and says it will help them track criminals. Federal grants have given aid to police departments to use this new data scanner system. A study by the ACLU shows that the police has only produced a small amount of alerts on suspicious vehicles. For example 1 out of 500 vehicles scanned were given a alert. Studies prove this program really does not help finding criminals.
Are people becoming so used to being watched? Are we going to live in a country where government surveillance programs are normal? Not enough people seem to be outraged by these programs. These programs violate Americans privacy. We now live in a country where big brother is always watching.