alt Hacker NewsHere in Sweden, the use of license plate scanners has become the norm for basically all parking houses, bridge tolls and road tolls. Even if you don't install the app or become a "member" of whatever system they are using, the license plate scanners is still used to detect when you enter or leave, and in some cases they automatically look up your home address to send you the bill with zero interaction with the driver. Even if they offer alternative ways to pay, by for example sms, it still uses the license plate scanner when you leave.
The only political party to even mention this as a problem was the pirate party back 15 years ago, and even then it never became a major issue that got discussed. Like paying with credit cards rather than physical cash, people see it as convenience or just as the way things now work.
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Unlike toll roads and parking lot entrances it seems like these cameras are being installed for the sole purpose of surveillance and tracking peoples movements.
Unless you implement a way of stopping people from leaving until they pay (which is really expensive and inefficient), collecting data on who owes you money is sort of unavoidable, no? It's only when that data starts getting collected en masse for no good reason and retained ~forever that we start to run into problems.
In the US a lot of the bridge tolls are automated, or became automated during the pandemic. With no going back.
You either have to create and account and register your vehicles by license plate, or you get a toll in the mail that must be paid either by mail or online.
I got behind on a few of these and got fined, I think maybe 5x the price tacked on.
I would love to just pay in cash each time I use an infrequenlty-crossed bridge.
Looking for context here: how do Swedes view their government? Do they feel represented by, it, trust their governments etc.?
My perception as a USian in a coastal, progressive state, is that trust in government is quite low. Municipal and county governments do OK, but federal and to some degree state governments seems to have priorities that are wildly divergent from our own.
My last job paid for parking in one of these places. When the CEO stopped paying (long, very stupid story) without telling us, the parking company sent me, personally, to collections despite having zero responsibility to or interaction with these people.
Same is true in Iceland. It’s just the established norm. Much less costly vs installing gates and barriers and payment terminals and easier to add paid parking to non traditional locations where constricting entry/exit to barrier’ed lanes would be a challenge or impossible. Shifting the payment experience to the user’s smartphone. It’s still a bit foreign to visitors from places where this isn’t the norm but for Iceland and Icelanders it works well and is a non issue.
To be fair, the relationship between the Icelandic people and their government and their corporate class is wildly different vs that in the US in 2025 to say the least.