Ever get the feeling that we have too much privacy? On license plates and guaranteed hilarity... (Bonus: 3D Gatsby link for those who missed it)

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Summary: How about a social site/app that allows you to take pictures of each other's license plates, while driving, and then send comments? I say perfect. I mean, not really. Fact is, ah screw it...I'll be in my cranky old man bunker.

BLOT: (10 Mar 2011 - 04:23:10 PM)

Ever get the feeling that we have too much privacy? On license plates and guaranteed hilarity... (Bonus: 3D Gatsby link for those who missed it)

Pop quiz hot-shot, if you could choose only one of these things to bring into reality, which would you choose:

Guess what, sports fans, now you don't have to choose! You get both the 3D rendition of Gatsby and the what could go wrong with taking photos of each other's tags and uploading them with comments site/app! Hot damn, we are living in the future, folks.

I have no comment to say about the latter (or the former) that you probably can't guess, but I'll toss out just a couple. A) I know this is just license plates [as unique identifiers, they are excellent, but have very little precise information in and of themselves]. Except that this does not exist in lonesome. There are plenty other ways this can backfire when combined with, say, Facebook autoposting crap about your license plate to your wall.

B) What does the future hold for this style service? Even if this one is one-way (?) communications with people based on their tag-as-address, what about more complicated endeavors? Where your tag becomes not just a destination stand-in but an online moniker? Picture a FourSquare system where you allow online shots of your tag to track you and become a go-to interaction hotspot with your online presence.

C) Notice that as financial function, part of this is based on allowing businesses to contact you. Which means, what, it encourages them to take photos of your tag as you enter/leave the parking lot? Take photos of cars passing-by? Or maybe just a straight forward "people with tags marked as being in this geophysical location, near your store..."?

D) Be sure to not overook that a huge number of tags have already been entered. It's not an opt-out service. The only "opt-in" variation is that by signing up and claiming a tag, you get to see what people are doing.

Ok, so I had some comments. Here's a bonus. My lawn? Get off it.

PS: There is, of course, a series of legal ramifications. Except I doubt this in and of itself will cross it. The reason being that your tag is actually about as much a public extension of your identity-space as your car make/model. The biggest problem is when the bits under "A" and "B", above, comes about. Once you start tying in, say, a person's plate to their identity and FourSquare style service, you run into the edges of big problems. Oh, look, that tag is not in their home town...etc etc.

PPS: Best quote from that article: "His company understands and takes its civic responsibilities seriously." If by civic responsibility, you mean "Making money while avoiding lawsuits..."

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: March 2011


Written by Doug Bolden

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