Yesterday I worried about the privacy implications of toll roads. Turns out National's plan is far worse than I thought:
GPS devices could be installed in every Auckland car, tracking where and when the driver goes around the city, as part of moves to introduce a form of road tolling in the city, the Automobile Association says.
The government has done an about-turn on its earlier opposition to motorway tolls and now says "network pricing" will be needed to combat worsening congestion in our biggest city.
AA principal adviser Barney Irvine said the system would not be a road toll as we traditionally know it, but would cover the whole Auckland region and replace the fuel tax.
A GPS in every car, tracking you everywhere you go? This isn't a toll system - its a fucking surveillance network.
Again, once the information is collected, it is useable by other government agencies. The police can already access toll-road records through the production order system (or simply by asking); this would let them get everywhere you have ever been. And they wouldn't even have to pay for the tracking device - you'd have to buy it for them in order to be allowed to drive.
Fuck that shit. Lets keep our privacy. Lets say "no" to spy-roads.
