Australia state adds AI number plate readers to GPS tracking of corona-quarantine busters
- Reference: 1586413934
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/09/australia_state_adds_ai_number/
- Source link:
As The Register reported last week, the State gave itself the power to [1]install surveillance kit in the homes of known quarantine-breakers or compel them to wear tracking devices. No detail of the technology involved was made available at the time of that announcement and the State Government did not respond to our request for information.
Police minister Michelle Roberts has now [2]announced a purchase of GPS-equipped ankle bracelets. Local media reports [3]suggest the state will acquire 200 of the devices.
Funding has also been found for 100 cameras capable of recognising number plates. Those devices will be used to enforce the State’s ban on travel within its borders. Western Australia has divided itself into nine regions to stop the spread of the virus and only essential travel between the regions is allowed.
There are good reasons for this regime. One is that remote aboriginal communities typically fare worse than other places during any health crisis. Another is that most of the State’s mining industry is in remote locations where it is tough to deliver emergency health services. And those mines pay plenty of taxes and earn even more export revenue for the State, and the rest of Australia.
So much revenue, indeed, that they're considered worthy of the sternest coronavirus-related surveillance regime The Register has encountered. ®
Sponsored: [4]Forrester Build a Digital Experience Portfolio
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/01/west_australia_isolation/
[2] https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2020/04/91-point-2-million-dollar-police-package-to-support-COVID-19-response.aspx
[3] https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/coronavirus-wa-new-91m-policing-package-will-include-electronic-surveillance-c-964435
[4] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8554/forrester-build-a-digital-experience-portfolio?td=wptl1936
in came the real name
Incorrect, good sir. It is China Virus but may also be referred to as Wuhan Virus. You are referring to its scientific name, a language < 0.1% of us speak. ;)
Re: It's not being done for the indigenous people
You come off as a crazed, yet pedantic conspiracy theorist.
Fuck you, I suppose.
I'm absolutely certain that all this additional spying - sorry monitoring - will be removed the instant the WuHuFlu epidemic is over.
Absolutely positive.
Isn't it funny ?
Isn't it curious how, when dictators-in-power decide to add more surveillance to their arsenal, funds are found without any problem ? Money is never an issue when it comes to buying new toys to spy on people.
Now they're adding plate number readers. Which will obviously stay in place after the pandemic is declared over because, well, it has been paid for so, might as well use it now. I wonder what new Stasi approach they're going to find with that.
Re: Isn't it funny ?
I suppose the fact that, over here on the other side of the country in the obviously technologically backward state of Qld, police cars have been doing this for years with automatic number plate recognition (trials started in 2012), is a sign that Sand Gropers live in a state normally devoid of authority? I believe other states including WA have this as well.
Re: Isn't it funny ?
yes, NSW cops and roadside cameras do rego checks. Have done for years. Recently added phone in hand detection. That I could live with given the number white forward control vans that are always driven badly by psychopaths with at least one phone glued to side of head. Snooping has got worse. Heck, I recently was carting some sheep to an abattoir and got pulled over for a vehicle check, license check and magic tree carcass to prove I had right to move a trailer load of sheep. All in order but the urge to snoop was strong long before the latest bug started.
It's not being done for the indigenous people
Like every other decision of consequence in the wide brown land of Oz, it was done by, and for the miners.
And BTW- this virus is officially Cov-SARS-2, not 'Coronavirus'. After considerable analysis, the scientists decided it was a second Severe Acute Respiratroy Syndrome, just like the last one. So out went 'novel', and in came the real name. There is a reason our glorious and mighty global controllers continue to call it something, anything... other than SARS-2
SARS 1 was 15 years ago, lots of time to get prepared...