Cameras sold for stolen vehicle recovery are now generating $1,251 mailed fines for phone use, raising serious legal and privacy concerns.

A woman drives with both hands on the wheel. Her phone sits face-down on her lap. No officer pulls her over. No lights flash. Weeks later, a $1,251 ticket arrives in the mail. The evidence: a single frame from a Camera surveillance app. The charge: phone use while driving.

Automated camera companies market their devices as automated license plate readers — tools for catching stolen cars, flagging warrants, and aiding serious investigations.

Sold as a Crime Tool. Used as a Fine Machine.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    45·
    2 days ago

    An example of what people in positions of authority think is perfectly acceptable:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

    School authorities surreptitiously and remotely activated webcams embedded in school-issued laptops the students were using at home. After the suit was brought, the school district, of which the two high schools are part, revealed that it had secretly taken more than 66,000 images.

    A lawsuit wasn’t enough, the administrators should be branded as sex offenders and the parents should have taken them out behind the school and beat the crap out of them.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Montgomery County District Attorney all initiated criminal investigations of the matter, which they combined and then closed because they did not find evidence “that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent”.

      If I don’t have intent to commit a crime but I break the law, it’s not an excuse that a cop or judge will buy. Holy fuck.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      1 day ago

      I seem to recall something about a story where, like, a kids mom didnt know the camera was remotely turned on and walked through the room naked, after having just gotten out of the shower, and there was some kind of CPS investigation about it?

      or is my brain mixing up several different school district voyeur stories together?