Ladies…
Wow, wow and wow… I have read several articles on this topic and the more I read the more astonished I become. Just when you think you’re doing the very best you can to protect your family, BAM – technology takes control.
Plate-reading cameras differ from speed cameras, red light cameras, or even parking enforcement cameras, which are designed to catch violators and criminals. Plate readers simply capture every car that goes by in a digital dragnet, then check the plate number against “hit lists” of cars associated with criminal activity. Which if you’re like me, you say GOOD… We need to catch the criminals. YEA for the good guys, Right?!
Well, if that is all they were used for – we all would be correct. However, it’s not. Keep reading…
So let’s start with the good stuff on these plate reading cameras. They help to put out alerts if there is a child abduction. They help find stolen cars in parking lots; i.e. malls, grocery stores, etc. They help find criminals (provided the criminal is dumb enough not to change cars). It helps in providing safety from terrorists (provided we have a plate number) to watch their activity. Recovering vehicles from deadbeat borrowers; all worthy causes, and absolutely worth the money when it comes to the above. I am 100% on board with it.
However, the problem comes when this lovely database of plate numbers are NOT protected and literally anyone can sign up and get in this database; which now opens up Pandora’s box of uglies…
TLO is an investigative technology company in Boca Raton, Fla; began offering the search service to the private industry clients in June, saying it taps into a database of more than 1 billion records collected by automatic license plate readers.
It’s unclear who runs the database that TLO taps into, but the two leading companies in the field say that each month their databases contain pieces of geo-located information from millions of license plates.
“The prospect of a private company making such data public to all comers is scary, stated Crump, an attorney with the ACLU’s speech at a Privacy and Technology Project. This information is particularly what stalkers would love to get their hands on.” Crump also said the possibilities are endless; corporations can now track their employees… No more calling in sick ladies and taking a day of well-need rest. Or people, who are on disability, watch out literally your every move is now being recorded.
“There’s NO ILLEGALITY whatsoever for me giving you data about a license plate.” Stated by Scott A. Jackson, founder and CEO of MVTRAC, which controls one of the two big private PLR databases.
The issues are really not about retention of the data. The real issue is one of access of the data.
TLO says on its website that the service offers photos of the vehicle and license plate and geographic stamps, and can map where vehicles were seen.
A prime example is from Katz-Lacabe who has first-hand experience with the reach of LPR data. Plate readers captured his two vehicles more than 100 times over two years, which he discovered records request in 2010. In one of the images, he and his daughters are stepping out of their Toyota Prius in their driveway.
He states that “I think people don’t understand the danger of metadata and the information they can get from it. This type of information is useful FOREVER,” he said. Plus now there’s the multiplying factor of LPR data, cellphone data, Facebook posts, and plate readers sources of information about an individual. When this information gets combined with other information and there’s quite a portrait of that person.”
Diane Ray
