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from the Not-that-NSA,-the-other-one. dept.
The US National Sheriffs' Association wants Google to block its crowd-sourced traffic app Waze from being able to report the position of police officers, saying the information is putting officer's lives at risk.
"The police community needs to coordinate an effort to have the owner, Google, act like the responsible corporate citizen they have always been and remove this feature from the application even before any litigation or statutory action," AP reports Sheriff Mike Brown, the chairman of the NSA's technology committee, told the association's winter conference in Washington.
Waze, founded in 2008 and purchased 18 months ago by Google for $1.1bn, has about 50 million users who anonymously share their locations to help gauge road traffic flows. The app also allows police reports and road closures to be added to maps and shared with other users.
Brown called the app a "police stalker," and said being able to identify where officers were located could put them at personal risk. Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said his members had concerns as well.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/26/nsa_gunning_for_google_wants_copspotting_taken_off_waze_app/
(Score: 1) by Michael.Jackson on Tuesday January 27 2015, @12:52PM
Radar detectors are still illegal depending on which state you're driving in. I happen to live in Virginia where they are illegal.
Related story: I used to drive a truck cross country back when the speed limits were universally 55 on all major roads. I bought a radar detector, kind of a squarish looking thing, I'm thinking it was a FuzzBuster brand but not sure. Anyway, I'm heading north on I-35 going through San Marcos, Texas, the detector is quiet, I top a hill and surprise, the lights on the waiting cruiser start twinkling, the detector never chirped once. I pull over to the shoulder, the officer parks his cruiser just to the right side of the truck cab. After exchanging pleasantries and being handed my ticket for 66 in a 55, the officer gets back in the cruiser starts to pull back on the highway. The radar detector, that heretofore silent companion, decides that right then is the time to notify me about the presence of radar and emits a warning chirp. I don't know if anyone else found it useful, but that device went out the window right then.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday January 27 2015, @08:18PM
Because he couldn't possibly have figured out what your speed was without using his radar...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @12:41AM
In Virginia as well, nearly 40 years ago, I was on the rise of a hill on the interstate.
The cop was on the downhill side.
My FuzzBuster (in a kleenex box on my dash) -did- pick up his radar and I backed down my speed before he had a visual on me.
A guy passed me and that was the guy the cop stopped.
Regulation of radio receivers is a federal matter.
I'm surprised this state-level prohibition hasn't been nullified by a federal court.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by damnbunni on Wednesday January 28 2015, @10:59AM
Virginia is the ONLY US state where radar detectors are still illegal.
(They're illegal in DC as well, but that's technically not a state, so nyah.)
They're also prohibited on military bases, but so are lots of other things.
Virginia's ban would probably be struck down like all the other states' bans if someone bothered to fight it all the way to the top.
Also, while the Fuzzbuster was one of the first affordable radar detectors it was also complete and total crap. To the point where when Fuzzbuster submitted one to Car and Driver for a comparison test. they took a Fuzzbuster case and put an Escort inside it because they knew the Escort was going to kick their ass.