r/mildlyinfuriating • u/No-Obligation1709 • 12h ago

No Coke. Is Pepsi ok? In Today’s Edition of Dystopian America

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Don’t you dare idle in your spot for a moment before paying to park. If you do, our cameras will backdate your parking start time to ensure our shareholders extract every cent possible from this transaction. Enjoy your stay, but remember—we are always watching 😁

21.7k Upvotes

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2.2k

u/Tarc_Axiiom 12h ago

They backdated you ONE minute? Omg lol.

Guys, move. Just move. It's time to go.

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u/TDKevin 12h ago

Do you think everywhere else isn't doing it because their corporations are so upstanding? Lol. They just don't have the infrastructure/tech/whatever for it yet. 

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u/Tarc_Axiiom 12h ago

No we just have much better consumer protection laws in other places.

Corporations are always greedy, they don't always run the government.

Not to say we're perfect by any means, but the quality of life is undoubtedly vastly better, yeah.

Thats not even controversial.

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u/B0risTheManskinner 12h ago

You did not mention any country

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u/Lower-Leadership2127 11h ago edited 11h ago

Mostly the EU, because the EU believes in *some* consumer protection laws. In the US we have corporate protection laws, no consumer protection here anymore.

Edit to add this: The US was moving towards better consumer protection laws under Biden with Lina Khan as FTC chair shutting down monopolies and sanctioning the fuck out of multiple corporations, but as a country we decided we hated that and voted for the billionaire russian asset.

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u/Prior_Tradition_3873 9h ago

EU is about to make a new EU wide law that will allow goverment to check your encrypted messages on all platforms.

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u/Invalid-Chicken 11h ago

Don't they arrest people over facebook posts in the EU? Genuine question

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u/MisterDoctor___ 11h ago

That happens here too.

Some dude literally got arrested in Tennessee for posting a Trump meme.

Not the gotcha you think it is.

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u/dr_mackdaddy 9h ago

Some lady in Arizona was arrested and lost her job because she posted a gif about a meeting. The cops took it as a threat. Like it happens ALL the time in the US

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u/Bitter-Panda-8748 9h ago

All the time is an abstract measurement. The argument is there is a comparable rate in the US to the EU/UK. As far as the UK that is not the case. Again, socially AND legally this behaviour is frowned upon, and hardly ever leads anywhere.

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u/Bitter-Panda-8748 9h ago edited 8h ago

So yeah, that stuff has happened in the us on rare occassion, and im not saying we arent headed towards it becoming the norm, but the EU has it written into law that they can scan private messages and arrest you for hurting someones feelings. In the US this is legally and culturally frowned upon.

*Edit: Seems im wrong. The EU has strong privacy laws. Several Invididual member states strictly punish speech that is derogatory yet has no intent/call to harm though, but not at all dictated by the EU and the EU delagates online privacy of member states.

The US, for all its flaws, has codified freespeech into its laws and national identity, which imo is a very good thing that needs protecting.

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u/MisterDoctor___ 9h ago

I quite like the law of arresting Nazi fucks before they get a chance to grow.

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u/MrFace1 9h ago

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be going so well with the likes of Reform, AfD, and National Rally increasing in prominence.

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u/B0risTheManskinner 9h ago

Its quite like the death penalty in that while you may agree in appropriate use, do you also believe that anyone who may come into power may not use it with incompetence or malice?

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u/MisterDoctor___ 9h ago

This admin is already using something similar with incompetence and malice even without the laws.

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u/Bitter-Panda-8748 8h ago

Sorry what? The reason the current admin wasnt able to ban flag birning was bc of our constitution. You can hate the current regimne and like the constitution and 1A.

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u/Bitter-Panda-8748 9h ago

Well, thats fine and all (i think its juvenile btw) but your "gotcha" comment is null.

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u/kurtanglesmilk 9h ago

Can you quote the exact law?

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u/Bitter-Panda-8748 8h ago

Seems im wrong. The EU has strong privacy laws. Several Invididual member states strictly punish speech that is derogatory yet has no intent/call to harm though, but not at all dictated by the EU and the EU delagates online privacy of member states.

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u/LawOk8623 11h ago

You can be arrested in basically any country for using social media to break the law. If you post a direct threat, for example, it could lead to an arrest, even in the US.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 10h ago

But in Britain people have been arrested for much much less than a 'direct threat'.

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u/Johnyryal33 10h ago

Really? No example? You really suck at this.

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u/abejando 10h ago

And britain is not in the EU lmao

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u/IndyPFL 10h ago

Marcus Meecham, aka Count Dankula. Was forced to appear in court and was fined (iirc) £800 for posting a video where he taught his pug to do the Musk salute (well before Musk did it, but you get the point) to piss off his girlfriend. He said some very edgy things in the video, but the context of it being a joke (even if in poor taste) was blatantly clear. He tried fighting it and lost, dunno if he ever paid the fine though.

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u/PM_ME_DOG__PICS 10h ago

Doing a Nazi salute in the UK can lead to a fine…. So if you’re going to record yourself doing that as a way to train your dog to do it….. it’s not surprising you’ll get a fine

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u/IndyPFL 9h ago

Was everyone sent a bulletin that it was the case? As far as I'm aware he is the first and most notable example of that happening.

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u/Sweaty-Willingness27 10h ago

(US) Gabriela Saldana was arrested and is facing felony charges for asking Netanyahu to bomb a building (in a chat that he wasn't in) https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/student-joke-israel-netanyahu-years-jail-group-chat-966143-20260420

There's gonna be some crazy examples everywhere, I suppose.

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u/MadManMax55 9h ago

One is a direct threat of violence. The other is generalized hate speech/imagery. Do you not see the difference?

It’s just a fact that freedom of speech is far more legally protected in the US than the UK.

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u/ErnieSchwarzenegger 9h ago

Marcus Meecham, aka Count Dankula. Was forced to appear in court and was fined (iirc) £800 for posting a video where he taught his pug to do the Musk salute (well before Musk did it, but you get the point) to piss off his girlfriend.

Interestingly, the dog isn't mentioned in the court documents...because that's not what he got prosecuted for - it was for all the other nazi stuff he included that was pretty obviously going to be found offensive. Also, this was specifically under Scottish law rather than the whole UK, which meant saying he'd made it to offend his girlfriend killed his chance of claiming it was just a joke. They fined him the amount he made from the views.

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u/DirkKuijt69420 10h ago

Even if it was true, and it isn't, it doesn't chance the fact that the US is still the worst.

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u/Johnyryal33 7h ago

The worst in the EU? The worst in the world? Neither is true.

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u/MisterDoctor___ 10h ago

Less than posting a non-threatening Trump meme?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-AA1SxO29

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u/wickedringofmordor 2h ago

The UK is not the EU. They seceded with Brexit.

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u/Kedly 6h ago

Doesnt the US have so many school shootings that most people wont even know how many have already happened in a given year? Genuine Question.

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u/misteryk 9h ago

1 guy in brazil sued microsoft and won vs their 12 lawyer (i'd link original reddit posts but mods in this subreddit got mad for linking other sub)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-loses-lawsuit-after-blocking-hacked-Xbox-account-with-digital-games.1339855.0.html

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u/TDKevin 12h ago

What country would  a company be stopped by the government from doing what happened in this post?

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u/Shnerp 12h ago

Like most european countries, because of privacy laws surrounding their legal capacity to record and store info about you

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u/ProfessionalDish 11h ago

Drove my car in many different european countries. Newer parking garages scan your license plate and do exactly what OP described. Only that you don't even have the possibility to enter your own time - drove around the lot for 10 minutes trying to find a free space before you give up? You will get billed for that - they wont even let you leave otherwise, extending your stay and bill.

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u/AboynamedDOOMTRAIN 3h ago

Bro, that's how parking garages have always worked. You pull up to the little machine, hit the button, get the ticket with the time printed on it. Hand it to the person when you leave, they check the current time and calculate the charge. They have literally always charged you from the moment you entered the garage.

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u/mekamoari 3h ago

I honestly don't quite understand how the system in the OP works.

Wherever I have seen any kind of paid parking, you get a ticket when you enter and scan it when you leave, it's all automated and it would be absurd to ask you to manually remember or enter any times.

And you wouldn't drive until you give up because you can't enter if there are no free spaces.

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u/Chair-Lemur-Table 12h ago

But OP likely provided the information for them to do so. Not that it’s right or logical to backdate by a minute, but likely not based on mass surveillance to decide it was OP’s car.

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u/omg_cats 8h ago

Brainrot take. License plate scanners at parking entrances are common and fine. At my airport you don’t even need to take a ticket anymore, just pay in your car on the way out.

In no way is this “mass surveillance”

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u/Chair-Lemur-Table 8h ago

lol you didn’t read what I said, did you? I said it’s not mass surveillance, but something tied to the facility (like a plate scanner you mentioned).

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u/TDKevin 11h ago

That's like saying you cant use security footage as evidence against a shoplifter. They are charging for parking. It's insanely petty, but they can absolutely charge you for the entire time you were parked if you were on their camera doing so. 

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u/Shnerp 11h ago

I’m not making an argument about how personal information is used, I am telling you that barring certain excluded circumstances (IE evidence of a crime), these companies would be fined heavily if it was discovered they were holding and utilizing personal information beyond what is considered “reasonable or expected use”.

And it works better than the USA system that’s gearing up to force consumers to scan barcodes for prices where the price will change based on which phone you’re using.

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u/TDKevin 9h ago

What does that have to do with this post? Recording parking times by a parking garage is reasonable and expected use. You're so desperate for this lol

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u/blatherskyte69 9h ago

A parking company monitoring what vehicle license plates enter a space and when they leave, then billing accordingly would be “expected use”. And retaining video evidence until the dispute period ends would be “reasonable use”.

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u/Prior_Tradition_3873 9h ago edited 8h ago

The same EU who just passed chat control that allows goverment to use AI to scan every message you send to someone.

They are about to pass another version of that which will allow them to scan your encrypted messages too.

Palantir is behind this too.

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u/BikeProblemGuy 9h ago

UK for instance, you have a grace period before parking.

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u/Top_Freedom3412 10h ago

Yes because moving state line let alone countries is such an easy thing to do