NYPD asks Google to scrap Waze's DUI checkpoints
The NYPD has sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, asking it to axe a Waze feature that allows users to mark cops' locations on the navigation app. Based on the letter first seen by Streetsblog NYC and CBS New York, authorities believe the feature is making it harder to enforce the law and keep the roads safe. The NYPD sent the cease-and-desist just a couple of weeks after Waze debuted speed camera notifications, but the cops' letter mostly focused on the fact that the ability allows users to give each other a heads-up about sobriety checkpoints.
[...] [Based] on the statement it provided to NYT, [Google] doesn't have any intention to give in to the NYPD's demand. It told the publication that safety is a top priority for the company and that "informing drivers about upcoming speed traps allows them to be more careful and make safer decisions when they're on the road."
Also at Gizmodo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @02:29AM
Once you're willing to surrender liberties in exchange for safety - whether that safety is real or imagined - you have opened the door to tyranny. Since the US is supposed to be the country of 'give me liberty or give me death,' everyone should be willing to die in the name of freedom.
Which doesn't mean that the government can violate everyone's liberties because a small number of people endanger others. Go after the specific people who are harming others. This may make it harder to catch them, but that's worth it in the name of liberty.