'Find My Car' App Can Also Catch Crooks

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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An Australian retail management company is putting an older technology to work with new uses. Westfield Management has installed automobile license plate readers in the shopping centers to help customers locate their cars on multi-level parking decks. The cameras work in conjunction with an iPhone app to locate cars, provide store information and can also report parking availability at the mall before leaving the house. If this catches on, expect to see this coming to a mall near you.

Westfield's new app means you'll never lose your car in the shopping centre again - and police now have at their fingertips technology to track down stolen and unregistered vehicles.
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Sounds like a good thing for you...and a bad thing for you (big brother getting one step closer to real time surveillance of everyone).

Of course it would be on an Apple product, lest we not forget about the whole 1982 thing.
 
BBA said:
Sounds like a good thing for you...and a bad thing for you (big brother getting one step closer to real time surveillance of everyone).
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yeah, makes you wonder if this information will be easily accessible to the local govt in some way...surely they'd like to do something with it. :eek:
 
okashira said:
Yeah, what a joke. Out of the 30 or so current smartphones out there, they make an app compatible with only one. :rolleyes:
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You obvious have no idea what their demographic is.

BTW, there isn't 30 different smartphones platforms... there are currently only 4 (RIM, iOS, Android, WinMo)
 
I've installed an automated license plate mask that I enable every time I drive onto private property. These license plate readers won't work on my car.
 
djgizmo said:
BTW, there isn't 30 different smartphones platforms... there are currently only 4 (RIM, iOS, Android, WinMo)
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Not trying to criticize the criticism by being nitpicky but... you did not recognize Bada, Symbian, GEOS, WebOS...probably a slew of homebrew and foreign ones as well. What is in Russia or in the US Gov't? (Definitely not Blackberry for US President)

There may or may not be 30 that we know of, but, a better way to say it could have been: there are currently only 4 MAJOR smartphone platforms.
 
This is probably more about tracking customer habits, than it is about helping their customers.... i smell potential data mining & information sales (not your name of course! ;) , just your unique plate, when you shop, where you shop, what you buy, how long you shop for, etc, etc)

Being a privacy advocate, I am 99% sure already I would not install this app.
 
jnmunsey said:
I've installed an automated license plate mask that I enable every time I drive onto private property. These license plate readers won't work on my car.
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Also add Infrared LED's around the plate that "shines" on it, making it invisible to CCD cams. :)
 
jnmunsey said:
I've installed an automated license plate mask that I enable every time I drive onto private property. These license plate readers won't work on my car.
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