General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My Life in Circles: Why Metadata is Incredibly Intimate [View all]intaglio
(8,170 posts)Can identify which cars enter a toll area and which cars cannot - without human intervention. They "see" a car has entered but not left the toll zone and bring that number with attendant licensing details to the attention of a human. Is this spying? Remember, before you answer that all of these details are available about any car entering the toll zone.
Does it become spying if a policeman calls at your home and asks what happened? Is it spying if they access your mobile phone account to see which cell your phone was in or even the last recorded GPS position if a smart phone? Should they wait for a court order? Should the ambulance arrive late?
The reason why I quoted the first example, of a dumb camera system, is to point out there are no hard distinctions to be drawn and, to take it further from your comfort zone many traffic cameras can now be retro-fitted with OCR so detailed information about your own travel easily available. Uncomfortable? Yes. Illegal or unConstitutional? No.
The third? It is not "self incrimination" because, the information on an envelope is publicly visible, published. Let's say you stand in front of a crowd and shout about how you are going to kill Mr Ecks and then Mr Ecks shows up dead, is that self incrimination? Metadata on an e-mail or internet request is published data i.e. publicly visible, and it has to be publicly visible else the internet does ... not ... work. A warrant is only needed to open the envelope or to look at what is behind the metadata.