Tread carefully with vehicle privacy
Virginians should be wary of barcodes and RFID devices on their cars.
A recent report by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles gives lawmakers some sensible guidance on license plates. Unfortunately, it also raises some serious red flags about privacy.
During the 2012 General Assembly session, an awful automobile idea floated around with bipartisan support. Three Senate bills wanted to allow motorists to display only a rear license plate. Now they must display one on the front, too.
Lawmakers passed none of the bills, but they did ask the DMV to study the issue and vehicle identification in general. DMV pulled together stakeholders, including law enforcement, to consider options.
December 23, 2012 - 7:39 AM
RFID…yeah, I’ve been waiting for this one. Well, I guess we have it coming to us. After all, we do live in a world where privacy is not valued as it once was. The popularity of social networking sites reveals a paradigm shift away from just living life without asking for applause from our peers. Shortly, we will have given over our private decisions about health care to anonymous government bureaucrats who will only increase their control over our daily activities as time goes on. We’ve already seen that private property can be confiscated by local governments for uses that have little connection to the “general welfare.” Meanwhile, it’s bread and circuses for “mass man.” Cool. Imagine how enlightened American society will be in the span of another generation.
Nah, we don’t need that old, dusty Constitution. It was written by a few old white guys who had nothing but their selfish interests at heart. And besides, no one pays attention to that document anyway; our current president just uses his executive privilege when he runs into congressional resistance. RFID…it’s perfectly consistent with the social engineering promised by progressivism.
OMG the sky is falling! Obama invoked executive privilege once (compared to W’s six times), Facebook and Twitter are eating at our souls, and the Affordable Health Care Act will soon make robots out of us all! Oh, what you say? This was a study group of the DMV, a state agency in a state presided over by a very conservative governor and no action other than suggesting it be “studied further” was taken? Never mind…
Mr. Van Velzer is correct. The issue is the trend & the attitude (ignorance). Anyone who cannot see the “progressive” infringment of our privacy & rights….with an outright disdain for the Constitution is blind.
Of course…many applaud, or claim inevitable. Progress.
No where will this be more apparent than the upcomming attempted rape of our rights with “save the children” as the rallying cause. (Where do the save-the-children bunch [generally] stand on abortion?).
Here’s how they will get Virginians (and citizens of other states to accept this)…
“The DMV has worked together with Facebook to configure the RFI tag in your plate to check you in and post to your Facebook wall wherever you go, automatically!”
Everyone will be all over it.
I will not even attempt to argue that privacy has not been taken and given away over the centuries. I will argue all day long that it was in the name of Progressive or Liberal political motivations.
Especially in relation to gun control and criminal persecutions, the invasions have come from the “law and order” right wingers as well as you know that!
If there was not a continuing stream of bad, scheming, conniving and criminal minded people looking to harm us, I might have sympathy for your lament. I cannot muster such for a self inflicted wound. I believe I have mentioned this a time or two before, but every right, privilege or freedom we have lost or had restricted was the result of abuse of same.
Pogo was right, “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US” (with apologies to Commodore Perry)