Oh, and GoPhone is targeted at people who can not get a regular service plan, which requires a credit check and/or a deposit. That demographic would be the poor and those with poor credit. Your "poor vs people" statement in the first paragraph is semantically null. The poor are people and they are the subgroup the author claims is most effected by the situation explored. The poor are people and they are the target market for this service.

You are yet another dumbass who thinks that data plans are a necessity. MOBILE DATA ACCESS IS LUXURY, NOT A NECESSITY. Tell me, have you ever been poor? Have you ever had to skip a meal or three to pay a bill? I have been poor and have had to do just that. I know poor people. I have worked with them, lived in poor neighborhoods, and had poor people as friends and neighbors. You know what? None of us needed mobile data access. When we needed to use the internet, we went to the library or to a friend who had a computer and internet access. None of use had smart phones. We had regular cell phones and pagers. A few of use had computers, and I had the only laptop.

If using mobile data access is a ripoff as you say, don't use it. Problem solved. Oh, and you do know that one way companies keeps people from using a service they offer but don't have much capacity for is to charge a lot for using said service, right?

Oh, and while we are at it, what, exactly do you know about mobile data technology and access? Do you know how it works? Do you know anything about what happens between the handset, the tower, and the switch center? You do understand that cellular phone technology is geared towards voice calls and not data right?

You are not upset about any ripoff, because there is no ripoff. I am going to tell you straight out. You are an over-entitled, spoiled brat who is outraged that a company specializing in mobile voice and text communications has decided that pre-paid mobile data access is a luxury and has decided to charge like it is a luxury, and you consider that a ripoff. Well, let me inform you of something, mobile data access, prepaid or not, is a luxury and no one actually needs to use it. Hell, the way most people use their cell phones, they would be better off with two-way pagers. Why aren't you complaining that it is a ripoff to require a voice plan to get texting?

Mot people do not need internet service or a computer. And, smart phones are still luxury items. That $100 for the android phone is also food for a week, an electric bill, almost a week's rent in a cheap apartment. Almost no one needs one. In fact, considering how most people use their phones almost exclusively for texting, most people would be better off with a two way pager.

I like the way you put that "rent and bills and food". Well, you know what, "bills" encompasses a lot of things. I also notice you didn't include any money put aside for emergencies. And, again, mobile data access is not a necessity, it is a luxury. A cell phone and cell service can substitute, and may be better than, home phone service, but the data connectivity is not needed and is, in fact, a luxury.

You never leave your house and communicate with the outside world with nothing more than your smart phone, right? I mean, that is the only reason I can see for insisting that one requires a smart phone with data access to communicate with the outside world, especially considering that one can simply go outside and interact with the outside world, you fucking, spoiled little shit.

You know, shithead, I see people every day who live here in America without smart phones and without computers. You know how they do it? They have a regular cell phone, they make friends with their neighbors, and they go to a fucking library to use a computer. These people live in crappy neighborhoods, and are poor. But, you know what they don't have and don't need to go about their lives? Smart phones, laptops, home computers, and mobile data access.

You are complaining that they are not able to afford a luxury good, when they are busy spending their money on the necessities of life. Oh, and a lot of these people will have one, maybe two cell phones per HOUSEHOLD, which may consist of three generations.

I suggest you and your self-righteous ilk actually interact with the poor some time. And, I don't mean the drug dealers, drug addicted strippers, pimps, whores, and assorted other criminal lowlifes you get your jollies with, I mean the actual working poor. I have been one and I can tell you have never been. I have no doubt that you are an over-entitled college student who is still busy sucking on mommy's tit and fucking off in school to get a real job and is probably too scared to actually talk to a real poor person.

You are an ignorant, over-entitled, spoiled, pissant with delusions of helping the poor by giving them things they don't need but you think are necessities. You would give the poor polo mallets when what they really want is food, shelter, and decent paying jobs.

This is not about overage. It is about pre-paid, non-contract usage.

Let me get this straight. You didn't monitor your usage and went over your allowed data plan and are upset because they notified you at 0800 instead of immediately when you ran out at 0300 even though they are not required to notify you at all. Does that sound about right?

Sounds to me like you fit right in here in America with your victim mentality.

You are responsible for monitoring your usage, not the cell company. Next time, act like a responsible adult and monitor your usage.

I think you and any poor person who is using a smart phone need to get your priorities straight. If someone is poor, then that person should not be wasting money buying a smart phone or data plan. They have more important things to worry about such as the basics of life like food and shelter.

If you can not qualify or afford either a contract or a monthly plan, then you really shouldn't be spending the money on a smart phone because, honestly, you don't have the resources.

Complaining that poor people are getting soaked in the mobile phone data market is like complaining that poor people are getting a bum deal when it comes to buying champaign and caviar or driving exotic sports cars.. Just because a product is available, it does not follow that the product is going to be affordable for everyone. Every product or service is not not targeted at all segments of the population nor are they required to be priced so everyone can afford them.

Don't the poor have better things to do with their money than paying for a smart phone and its associated data plan? You know, things like food, and shelter?

A) A specific car is NOT being recorded. All cars passing are being recorded. Your argument is invalid.

B) No, you do not need to get judicial oversight for what you have described. A no-one' s fourth amendment rights are not being violated in the scenario you describe specifically because the vehicle in question is in plain view of the public on a public road. Surveillance only requires judicial oversight when it intrudes on a person's privacy, such as tapping phones, entering private locations, intercepting packages, etc. Assuming you are not lying about being a former federal agent (doing so may be a violation of federal law, btw), your agency may have required it (which I seriously doubt), but the law does not.

And, I do not believe you are a former federal agent for any investigative agency of the executive branch.

You are in public and have no expectation of privacy from what can be casually observed. Neither you or your vehicle is being searched. Your vehicle is in plain sight. It is being observed in a specific location, just as if a police car drove past it and the officer noted it. This is no more a search than if a police officer went by, on foot or in a car, and saw you waving a gun around or passing a pipe with pot in it back and forth with a friend.

Stop trying to claim that being seen on a public road is a violation of your privacy. I will say it again: You do not have an expectation of privacy for anything casually observable while you are in a public location. Quit invading our public with your private.

Neither you or your vehicle is being searched. Your vehicle is in plain sight. It is being observed in a specific location, just as if a police car drove past it and the officer noted it.