Re:Do the police... (Score 2, Interesting)

I maintain that everyone saying that it is the difference in speed is right. Except I broaden that statement even further. Chaos kills. Any kind of chaos on the road creates problems. For example, difference in speed, double lane changes, drifting out of the lane, suddenly braking for no reason, following too close, changing lanes without signaling, etc. If you think about the laws, nearly all laws are written to control the amount of chaos that can occur. This is why some states have a minimum speed law in addition to the maximum. My driving style is to actively avoid those who are increasing chaos. If I can not predict their every move, I don't want to be anywhere near them. I try to return the favor by being very predictable myself. If you don't use your turn signal to change lanes when other cars are around, I ask you to think about how much chaos you are creating (how do you react when a car suddenly changes lane for no apparent reason?).

As for the original issue. There is a huge difference between following someone and tracking their car, and it has to do with scalability. There are only so many police who can trail someone, and so it becomes a forcing function to limit its use to only those cases that really make sense. However, tracking devices can be put on everyone's car, and heuristics used to pick out interesting patterns. Suddenly, you have big brother and a system that requires very little investment to monitor the entire population. That's a pretty dangerous place to get to in terms of what happens next. If you disagree with this, I suggest you go watch minority report and think about how far this type of monitoring takes us in that direction.

Privacy and anonymity are very closely coupled to freedom. You can't impose on either without affecting freedom.