Cameras have also been around longer than I’ve been alive, but they are no longer recording on looping tapes either: their output is increasingly analyzed by automated systems, and the same could definitely apply to these.

It’s undoubtedly used for that too, but similar to cameras supposedly limited to traffic analysis, this system could also double as surveillance infrastructure. The readings might vary per vehicle passing over the coils: different concentrations of metal at different positions, the duration of a vehicle within range (which could be an indicator for length, speed, or both), etc. Measure these characteristics at many points along the way, while reading vehicle license plates at strategic locations, and it seems you’d have a pretty robust surveillance concept.

Yeah, I’m really wondering how many, of these 'Business 2 Business/Government (B2B/B2G) “solutions”, are hiding in plain sight. Researching ‘smart cities’ led me to tech100.pro, back then listing: videtics.com/en/integrations, showing Genetec as a partner. Ultimately, it’s just a matter of knowing what to search for: it all right there, just not marketing itself to you and I, but to organizations instead.

I’ve sunken way too much time into writing this haha. But I figured it important enough

E2EE isn’t really relevant, when the “ends” have the functionality, to share data with Meta directly: as “reports”, “customer support”, “assistance” (Meta AI); where a UI element is the separation.

Edit: it turns out cloud backups aren’t E2E encrypted by default… meaning: any backup data, which passes through Meta’s servers, to the cloud providers (like iCloud or Google Account), is unobscured to Meta; unless E2EE is explicitly enabled. And even then, WhatsApp’s privacy policy states: “if you use a data backup service integrated with our Services (like iCloud or Google Account), they will receive information you share with them, such as your WhatsApp messages.” So the encryption happens on the server side, meaning: Apple and Google still have full access to the content. It doesn’t matter if you, personally, refuse to use the “feature”: if the other end does, your interactions will be included in their backups.

Cross-posting my comment from the cross-posted post

It’s been like that for quite a while. I remember deleting all big-tech accounts in 2019, and shortly after, Facebook started requiring login for full public page access. Therefore I created a burner account using a ‘this person does not exist’ picture, which provided me short-lived access after manual review. For account recovery, I was required to supply additional selfies (or even video-selfies?), but at that point I gave up.

Ah, indeed. Must’ve read over it

What about X?

Why would governments, or any other organization, want to buy an entire pole assembly? If it was just an IoT device that could easily be implemented into existing infrastructure, I’d consider it a lot more compelling. Seems like just another “Smart City” startup, selling a dystopian sales-pitch; because that seems to sell these days… :)