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PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 06:14 
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The Truth About Cars

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UK Billboards Equipped with License Plate Spy Cameras

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An advertising campaign in the UK began using automated number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to identify passing vehicles and create personalized advertisements. The motor oil giant Castrol UK Limited yesterday activated a set of five electronic billboards in London that flash an image of the exact type of Castrol-brand motor oil appropriate for the nearest vehicle. ”The right oil for your car is: Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 A1,” the advertisement reads for eight seconds as a Jaguar with the license plate 1DFL drives past. The roadside digital billboards, seventeen feet wide and eight feet high, are owned by Clear Channel Outdoor. Castrol’s campaign added the license scanning technology which ties into the official UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) database. The agency provides private registration information to just about any company willing to pay the desired fee. According to Castrol, this particular campaign does not store any information about what vehicles or drivers pass the sign.


“The majority of car owners have little understanding of the purpose of oil in an engine, and as a result are using oil which is not beneficial to their type and age of car, resulting in higher maintenance costs and fuel consumption,” Ali Gee, head of consultancy at Three Monkeys, Castrol’s advertising firm, explained in a statement. “Our campaign will help to convey the benefits of ensuring the use of the right oil for your car.”

ANPR cameras are used by law enforcement and private companies throughout the US and the UK with no established legal framework limiting their use. Castrol’s website offers more detailed information about a vehicle’s specifications based upon its license plate.

[courtesy thenewspaper.com]

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PostPosted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 08:23 
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So are petrol stations.

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56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 02:47 
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So let’s look at the bigger picture here shall we. They can read your number plates and post up information about your car. And we all know that they have large data bases that they sell on to anyone who wants to pay for them.

We now know that our so called masters want to chip and pin car registrations with RFID readers so they can monitor your cars. These RFID readers will no doubt be used to control your car that has been fitted with a central computer system. They now want to insert RFID readers into the populace, under the guise of it’s going to be good for your health and will no doubt be fitted to our central computer systems, our brains. They will then have the ability to flash whatever they like to all the TV/Computer screens they are slowly fitting around the world, at air ports etc.

Where will these RFID devices be fitted? Will they be fitted into our right hands, or our heads, just as we have been warned in the Bible, about the mark of the beast? These bastards are playing the Devil with the British populace and they can’t even see it, not to mention the rest of the people around the world.

So it looks to me that they are slowly but surely heading for full control of everyone and everything we do in our lives. Will they next be looking at fitting a device around our necks that will explode if you step out of line? Or will the RFID reader also have a small explosive attached to it? :(

Which movie was it where they played out these scenarios? Was it Arnold Schwarzenegger and his movie Judgment Day? Or was it The Running Man?

Wiki wrote:
Schwarzenegger commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party


All the signs are there people, people just need to work it out for themselves. People need to start thinking outside of the box they have been kept in for thousands of years. :)

I've edited this post to insert this picture:-

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This is a picture taken in Tokyo, take a close look at it. :wink:

Take care all
Dixie
:bighand:

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 18:45 
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The traffic lights are sideways?

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 20:11 
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jomukuk wrote:
So are petrol stations.



I think the point the journalist is making is that this appears to be being used as a distracting advert? :popcorn:

Germany has used this for a while to compile its "AHA-Faktor" game for the OTT somewhat blase and arrogant driver. But that's used for a different purpose .. in private. :popcorn:

Likewise the petrol station system. This seems to be your car being used in an advert to sell you a particular brand of oil. Castrol oil is a good brand and does not need to lower to an alleged gimmick really :popcorn: - as alleged by the article anyway.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 21:17 
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Why are DVLA selling car details for advertising?

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/arti ... strol.html

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 22:46 
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It is extremely concerning that our details are 'sold' for 'profit'. I wonder if an FOI would help us establish their funding details.

There is a recent DVLA text vehicle check facility - we have to pay for but less worrying as they are the facility organising it, but are we then having to pay ? Is their £1 cost just to covers costs? I doubt it, it is an automated process, why shoudl I be able to learn about any vehicle if I place a text?

This extension to sell details with no control over that data thereafter is appalling. Considering all the fairly, recent data leaks this does not bode well !

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 03:57 
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Much as I hate adverts, this is the least bad use of ANPR I've seen so far. This only causes a distraction, the rest log your movements.
Death to numberplates!

And driving licenses, and the DVLA who then wouldn't be needed. Think of the savings. :)

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 17:58 
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Quote:
UK Billboards Equipped with License Plate Spy Cameras

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An advertising campaign in the UK began using automated number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to identify passing vehicles and create personalized advertisements. The motor oil giant Castrol UK Limited yesterday activated a set of five electronic billboards in London that flash an image of the exact type of Castrol-brand motor oil appropriate for the nearest vehicle.


Maybe it's the cynic in me but I suspect it does no more than pick up your reg and display it along with a random oil from the range.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 19:34 
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Now I've thought about it, this is probably a scam to try and get people to talk about, and therefore re-advertise their product for free.

Does a database of numberplate to engine oil exist? Is it accurate?
What about when people change the engine in the car? It'll instantly be wrong.
I was looking into currently available cars with CVT and found the Honda CVT-7. One of the problems with this, apparently, is that early user manuals, workshop manuals, everything listed the incorrect type of transmission fluid.

If they suggest you use oil which is incorrect and it damages your engine they could probably be sued, right?

I think scam. The best way to avoid this kind of scam is to not buy from people who use such tactics.

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 02:56 
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malcolmw wrote:
Why are DVLA selling car details for advertising?


Castrol already have a "recommend me an oil" service on their website that uses this information. I imagine it's pitched as a valid service, same as how Halfords et. al. can look up things like Alternator belt sizes based on your reg number. This new billboard probably just uses the same backend as the website rather than the DVLA specifically saying it's ok to use our database for your adverts.

The real question here is who the hell would put semi-synth into a new Jaguar. :shock:


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 08:42 
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They must really like Fords then.
The only real way to tell what you need in respect of parts is the engine number. I'm always being told I need part A when I know I do not....ford have a mish-mash of parts and the registration number is not a real indicator.....I'm always being given the wrong cambelt tensioner...and also the wrong alternator....even though I took the old unit in...I've even had the supplier tell me that the part I have is the wrong part !

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56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:12 
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Vauxhall are just as bad. I went in to get an oil filter using my engine number and was given the wrong one on two occasions. In the end I kept an old box label and took it in with me every time I wanted a new one. :roll:

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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 13:28 
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Homer wrote:
Maybe it's the cynic in me but I suspect it does no more than pick up your reg and display it along with a random oil from the range.



No, if you were being cynical you'd have said "Maybe it's the cynic in me but I suspect it does no more than pick up your reg and display it along with the most expensive oil that they think they could sell you for your car"! :lol:

Jokes aside, this is very worrying. Not the advertising - I doubt any sensible driver would ever give the billboard enough attention to read the plate (that's valuable time he COULD be spending staring at his speedo, looking for cameras, or, if he was REALLY on-the-ball, looking for hazards)! No, it's the fact that they're SO close to personal data. If they have your reg, they have your car. If they have your car, they have your address (in most cases). How long before environmental extremists start going round trashing people's houses if they own big cars? I mean, it's not TOO dissimilar to animal rights protesters staking-out labs and noting down registrations of employee (or even visitors') cars and using them for all sorts of nefarious activities!

I clearly won't be buying Castrol in the hope that the only thing that can stop this is if it doesn't make them money! Pity, I have nothing against their oils!


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 13:43 
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Actually that's not quite true.

The DVLA sell anonymised car data in bulk to a few organisations (The HPI check people for one). The key point here is anonymised. It's updated every so often (I'm guessing when new cars are registered and when plates are changed) which is why it takes a while from getting a new car to your car parts being on the list at Halfords.

However none of this is personally identifiable information, a reg number uniquely* identifies a car, not the driver and so long as the DVLA don't give out the registered keeper information this is all perfectly fine and legal.

I don't have too much issue with it, in some ways it levels the playing field for the independent motor trade as main dealers run their own databases of car details chassis number (and sometimes reg number too). Many of these databases (eg. Volvo VADIS or Nissan FAST) can be found easily (though illegally) online and will also contain all the details of your car and can be quite useful for looking up diagrams, part numbers etc. etc.

This billboard is not on the same level as the private parking companies who get your name&address off the DVLA so that they can send you threatening letters.


If anything the best use for this sign will be for road testing the latest PhotoBlocker type products (hint: they don't work)

*not taking cloned plates into consideration here.


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 19:22 
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I agree it's "not quite true"...

...yet

As you say, DVLA are prepared to flog the personal data in certain circumstances, and my fear is that the lure of the income (in these financially straitened times) will prove too much. It will be "sold" to the public as a self-financing bit of government that won't be a burden on the taxpayer. The non-car-owners are unlikely to have a problem with it. The anti-car lobby would, I'm sure, positively welcome it. The vast majority of the motroring public who "have nothing to hide" will probably not object if it means lower taxes....

...until it's too late!

I just get a bit jumpy when there's a powerful financial incentive for a government to do something like this!


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 19:54 
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The dvla also sell non-anonymised information which DOES have the registered keepers address attached.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6440803.ece

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56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2009 19:02 
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My new car uses some freaky-assed oil that's not generally available yet except in big drums, IIRC.

If I had it and the sign was still there, I'd love to keep driving past to make the sign get a headache!


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