Tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes - Juvenal
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US Senators ask Google, Apple, RIM to remove DUI checkpoint apps
FOUR US SENATORS have called on Google, Apple and RIM to remove Driving Under the Influence (DUI) checkpoint alert apps, which can be used to help possibly tipsy drivers avoid the police.
The Senators, Frank Lautenberg, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer and Tom Udall, sent a letter to the three companies asking them to remove the apps from distribution or take the DUI checkpoint feature be out of them.
They claimed that the apps are "harmful to public safety". They said the apps act as a free tool for drinking drivers to evade checkpoints, which puts peoples' lives at risk.
The apps either update in real-time to display the checkpoints or allow users to report checkpoints they have encountered. The question was raised by police in the past why anyone would use the apps, as avoiding the police suggests they must be up to no good.
The Senators have been involved in bringing in legislation relating to drunk drivers in the past. It is possible that if the three companies in question don't comply with their request they might attempt to address the problem with legislation. µ
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Senators, Frank Lautenberg, Harry Reid, Charles Schumer and Tom Udall, should do their job and take paycuts like the rest of the country and quit wasting our tax dollars. YOU IDIOT SENATORS !
Benjamin Franklin wrote:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
I survived being in an accident as a nine-year-old when a drunk driver hit my parent's van on the highway and pushed us into the median where the van rolled 3/4 turns at 55MPH.
I ask you this, if a potentially inebriated person is capable, present, and aware enough to operate a smartphone to the degree to find the appropriate app, use it to map their route, and avoid checkpoints do you really think a cop shining a flashlight in their eyes and asking them a few questions is really going to do any good?
These apps keep the people who don't need the checkpoint out of the way so that the officers can do their jobs more effectively.
Smartphone apps don't kill people, people do. Just like any other power, tool, or resource -- it is neutral.
Go back to sleep Johnno, you obviously haven't read the Bill of Rights before. These DUI checkpoints are borderline illegal search and seizure - the only thing that makes them legal is that they're announced a day in advance, published in the news paper, and on the radio. The thinking being that if people knew about them in advance, they are "consenting" to the search by driving on that road. So in essence, this checkpoint phone app is no different from the Weather app or the News app in that it's taking information that has already been publicly published - and bringing it to your phone.
When your parents or children are killed by a drunk driver who avoided getting caught in a checkpoint you'll about-face.
Stop bringing Jefferson or Franklin into these discussions, times have changed dramatically since those days, if you can't see that you're thick. Do you honestly think that they thought of everything back then what is happening today with freedom and freedom of speech?
Another attack on our freedom. The Gestapo style checkpoints are used for all sorts of things are are basically search without cause. F those senators and there gestapo cops.
They always use the old excuse, "For your safety or for the children" again f U Gestapo.
Does anybody in our government actually believe in our constitution anymore? We, the people, have a right to unreasonable search and seizure. A DUI checkpoint is a violation of this rule. In Pa to get around this constitutional issue our government, the police, are required to advertise these checkpoints and provide adequate alternate routes prior to the checkpoint to provide a driver the opportunity to avoid them. People avoiding contact with the police are not necessarily "up to know good". it is appalling to me that that statement was actually made. That officer should be removed from his position immediately. An attitude of power like that is scary. Perhaps we should ask Ben Franklin or Thomas Jefferson what they think. Of course they WERE up to no good...it was called freedom and a right not to be oppressed by their government. A society that is willing to trade liberty for security receives neither. This has been tested over and over again vis-a-vis 1930's Germany. What's next if Google and Apple don't cooperate with Big Brother? Audits, withdrawal of government contracts, antitrust legislation...Come on America WAKE UP! I mean jeez anybody who isn't willing to let soldiers stay at your house must be up to no good. Google, Apple, et.al., if you cave in this you surrender to fascism and deserve anything that comes from it!
These are applications that do nothing but disseminate information. What is it called when the government tries to censor the dissemination if information? Fascism. Now, I'm NOT a proponent of drunk driving, but I am a proponent of freedom. Apple and Google are free to remove those apps, but it is not up to Senators to determine what shoud or shouldn't be in an app store.
This seems like a case of legit software that could be used by people breaking the law; or just by people who would hate to waste 15 to 30 min waiting at a checkpoint.