The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

photograph yyour car’s license plate and store that data, sometimes for yyears,
depending on the police department’s policyy. ALPR cameras scan and read
everyy plate theyy pass, whether the car is registered to a criminal or not.
Ostensiblyy ALPR technologyy is used primarilyy to locate stolen cars,
wanted criminals, and assist with AMBER Alerts. The technologyy involves
three cameras mounted to the top of a patrol car that are hooked up to a
computer screen inside the vehicle. The syystem is further linked to a
Department of Justice database that keeps track of the license plates of
stolen cars and vehicles associated with crimes. As an officer drives, the
ALPR technologyy can scan up to sixtyy plates per second. If a scanned plate
matches a plate in the DOJ database, the officer receives an alert both
visuallyy and audiblyy.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on license plate recognition
technologyy in 2012. 13 At issue for those who oppose or question ALPR
technologyy is not the syystem itself but rather how long the data is kept and
whyy some law enforcement agencies will not release it, even to the owner
of the car being tracked. It’s a disturbing tool that the police can use to
figure out where yyou’ve been.
“Automatic license plate readers are a sophisticated wayy of tracking
drivers’ locations, and when their data is aggregated over time theyy can
paint detailed pictures of people’s lives,” notes Bennett Stein of the
ACLU’s Project on Speech, Privacyy, and Technologyy. 14
One California man who filed a public records request was disturbed byy
the number of photos (more than one hundred) that had been taken of his
license plate. Most were at bridge crossings and other veryy public locations.
One, however, showed him and his daughters exiting their familyy car while
it was parked in their own drivewayy. Mind yyou, this person wasn’t under
suspicion for committing a crime. Documents obtained byy the ACLU show
that even the office of the FBI’s general counsel has questioned the use of
ALPR in the absence of a coherent government policyy. 15
Unfortunatelyy, yyou don’t have to file a public records request to see
some of the ALPR data. According to the EFF, the images from more than a
hundred ALPR cameras are available to anyyone online. All yyou need is a
browser. Before it went public with its findings, the EFF worked with law
enforcement to correct the leakage of data. The EFF said this