Boston Tracks Vehicles, Lies About It, Leaves Data Exposed 88
An anonymous reader writes: License plate readers have been in the news a lot lately for the invasion of privacy they represent. Boston is the latest city to make mistakes with the technology. Two weeks ago, a reporter realized that the City of Boston had accidentally exposed records for their automated license plate reader system online. Anyone could have downloaded "dozens of sensitive files, including hundreds of thousands of motor vehicle records dating back to 2012." What's worse is that the Boston Police Department claimed in 2013 that it had stopped using license plate readers. A look through the accidentally-public database shows "hundreds of emails" dating from 2013 to the present, indicating that the police were still getting that data with help from the Transportation Department.
the Patriots should come out and support (Score:5, Funny)
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Takes one to know one
I think a "I know you are but what am I?" would have been much more direct and hurtful.
Re: the Patriots should come out and support (Score:1)
Don't worry, I'm sure that just like Brady, if this ever goes to court, the police will get away with it because they weren't aware they could be punished for cheating. Or whatever bullshit excuse a federal judge used for throwing out any punishment while saying that Brady cheated.
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Its just like those new justice department rules on warrants, as long as its us saying it, and not the legislature mandating it....we can publically state the policy today, then secretly change it tomorow; no harm; no foul.
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They've got easily tracked RFID chips. They've bionic cows. Robotic? Despotic? Animatronic? something-ic!
The city LIED about it? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm shocked, SHOCKED!!!!
Oh wait... How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips move.
Re:The city LIED about it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry, the government will investigate and punish the guilty. In this case it will be the reporter.
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It sure was recently when that license plate reader made a mistake and the cops detained the driver at gun point.
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The old Lie by Omission (Score:5, Insightful)
Most counties do this, lie by omission. "We don’t spy on our citizens!" Correct, we allow other countries, then we swap data.
Police, "We don’t track license plates!", We let the DOT do it for us.
So many lies in government agencies.
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Well you see it depends on what the definition of "do" is. Does "do" mean to perform an an action presently, or does it mean to have ever performed an action, or even to cause it to happen by a third party.
"it stopped using..." (Score:5, Insightful)
Taking them at their word, let's assume the police department stopped using license plate scanners. They no longer own them, they sold them off, whatever.
That doesn't mean that a third party doesn't run the licence plate scanners and the police have a very cozy relationship for getting all the data whenever they need it.
It's much like the recent changes to the NSA's spying playbook. They say they will no longer collect and store that metadata themselves .... but they will use a third party to do it. In particular, that third party is not subject to the government's data retention policy limiting position of the metadata.
In both cases, it means the agency itself is no longer doing it. That doesn't mean it still isn't happening, just that the agency is not the one actively doing it.
Re:"it stopped using..." (Score:5, Insightful)
And this is where we all stop acknowledging the law anymore - it's pretty much useless at this point. The law is a big game where everyone tries to use sneaky underhanded games to redefine words, or redefine the scope of words. Basically we write a law and then tweak the language so we can ignore the law. We might as well not write laws in the first place and save the hassle. The mess that came out of Obamacare: Point at the word "Federal" (an implementation detail) and use that to derail the whole operation. Point at some hazy definition of what "Federal" can and can't do. Use that as a justification for denying healthcare. Whatever. At the same time send out American Community Surveys that are a complete violation of the constitution. Quote penal codes on the survey to make it sound extra scary. Even use the wrong penal codes or totally unrelated penal codes. There's no penalty when a government office lies, cheats or steals. See Civil Asset Forfeiture if you want to see some hot police stealing in action. Testimony obtained under duress? Plea bargaining? Nope...no penalty for bent police dealings and under-the-table sentencing.
That said, if I'm ever hauled in front of a judge for trying to be sneaky you're damn straight a judge is going to pound me into the ground for not following the "spirit" of the law. You see, politicians only have to follow the base language. Citizens have to follow the "spirit laws" as well. That means we have to guess what we're doing is somehow wrong by some random brain-fart interpretation and "not do that". If you think someone might take offense then just don't do it. Self censorship rules.
That said, if you're white, modestly well funded, and make at least a passing attempt at following the laws you can skip most of this. You can't follow all of the laws since some of them contradict and some of them are broad as all hell. The trick is to blag your way around it and never get arrested, never say anything in front of a cop, always nod and just go about your business. If you attract the ire of a cop then you're basically 100% fucked with no recourse. This is the system we've created now. That's why the headline here is to be expected. It's not unusual at all. Nothing will come of it and nothing will be done about it. Maybe some sap due for retirement will be retired a little earlier to placate the PR gods but that's about as much as we can expect.
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[x] A whole religion of Judaism (Jews are anti-Christian) ...
[x] Dinosaur mass media completely owned by Jews..
Mel Gibson, is that you?
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I have known quite a few Jews, and have had very interesting conversations on why Jesus wasn't the promised savior, but I have never known a Jew to not like Christians at all. At heart, Jews, Christians and followers of Islam (what is the term for that?) are all essentially the same religion, they all worship the same god. In fact, the Koran specifically states that Jews and Christians should not be persecuted as they are brothers in faith. Unfortunately, not many Islamics (?) actually read and understan
Re:"it stopped using..." (Score:5, Informative)
If anyone bothered to read the linked article they would see that this is exactly what it happening. Strictly speaking, the police stopped using scanners. But the Boston Transportation Department is still using them and (apparently) contracted with Xerox to manage a database, which the police seem to have access to. I suppose one could argue that use of data collected by scanners still constitutes use of the scanner.
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I looked up Maryland, and it costs $48/plate, that is a little insane.
Re:"it stopped using..." (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, it is stalking. Seeing someone in a public place is fine. Seeing them occasionally is OK. Making sure you see them every time in many places without their consent is stalking.
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It's only stalking if there's a particular target. Writing down license plates of vehicles in a particular area that may change daily is not stalking.
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It rises to it if it's a concerted effort to write down license plates everywhere and correlate the data such that any vehicle can be retroactively tracked.
Try that with police cars or government limos and see if trouble doesn't find you.
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(apparently) contracted with Xerox to manage a database
Fascinating. I didn't realize Xerox did that kind of contracting.
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Fascinating. I didn't realize Xerox did that kind of contracting.
They've just been jealous of IBM's third reich contracts all this time, and they're doing what they can to catch up. (Hey, it's a tough market.)
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So the real question is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Is anyone going to be charged, arrested, jailed, or even fired or fined for this act of blatant spying and the attempted coverup? My answer is, only if these leaked records embarrass a high-ranking policeman or government official (eg, their wife thinks they go bowling every Friday night, but the records show them actually going to a gay bar).
Re:So the real question is... (Score:5, Interesting)
There already was a pretty embarrassing episode in this very city, which is the reason why the Boston police had to "shut down" the program. That incident, if I recall correctly, involved public release of a very limited database in an attempt to allay to privacy concerns. Even with this extremely hobbled database researchers were able to find multiple embarrassing events, firstly that the area with the highest recorded density of vehicles with outstanding parking tickets was the police parking lot. Secondly that at least one stolen vehicle had went past the same intersection time and time again at a predictable time and day and no one ever thought post a cruiser to retrieve it and arrest the thief.
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firstly that the area with the highest recorded density of vehicles with outstanding parking tickets was the police parking lot.
I understand the need for police. There is a certain percentage of society who will steal, kill, and assault other people if an enforcing agent isn't around.
However, in it's current incarnation, police have caused me more problems than they've solved. I've been pulled over, while walking and while driving. Not long ago my car was broken into, its window smashed. Did the police do anything? No, I got a parking ticket.
If someone breaks into your house, then the police might write a report, but nothing mor
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(And honestly, the individual police officers in my town don't seem to be the problem).
In my town, both the leadership and the individual officers seem to be part of the problem. But the whole county is run by an old boys' network (shock amazement) and I don't think you can have endemic police corruption without endemic government corruption.
If I just go to the next county, things are working there, the place is clean, and the cops are friendly and polite. Thanks, Ukiah, for being you. That's why I spend so much money there. I just wish you'd let them build that Costco, you could have even mo
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In my town, both the leadership and the individual officers seem to be part of the problem. But the whole county is run by an old boys' network (shock amazement) and I don't think you can have endemic police corruption without endemic government corruption.
If that's the case, and everyone knows about it, then the citizens are probably part of the problem, too.
All data becomes noise @ some collection threshold (Score:5, Interesting)
One motorcycle that had been reported stolen triggered scanner alerts 59 times over six months, while another plate with lapsed insurance was scanned a total of 97 times in the same span.
We are going to be partially rescued from the data collection efforts; not from conscience or court ruling,
but for the sheer, greedy mass of collections.
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If you believe this, you're a moron. The whole point is that they can selectively go back and pin things on you while they're on a which hunt / fishing expedition.
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I'm undoing all my moderation to post this, but to anyone who thinks "what a conspiratard!" they should be asking themselves what the point of all this collection was if they weren't using this to find stolen vehicles or uninsured motorists.
Re:All data becomes noise @ some collection thresh (Score:4, Insightful)
To measure which streets are the most congested?
They have traffic counting hoses for that [diamondtraffic.com]. No need to have a complex system to measure traffic congestion.
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a) The police typically has better things to do in a big city
b) These things are built for the sheer necessity to build them. They are required by some law or agency in pursuit of terrorism or tech jobs, then promptly underfunded and mismanaged resulting in becoming useless as a tool to the people who would be able to use them. The collection part works but then we have things like a few weeks ago where the police just can't manage to upgrade the 40GB hard drive that has the data.
c) These things are built a
To be expected. (Score:3)
No agency, governmental or otherwise, willingly gives up surveillance or information. We must ignore their claims to do so, and;
Require watchdogs, monitors, and direct supervision.
Constant investigation of databases, storage, and records, as of this of a continuous FOIA request.
Assume that they are still collecting the data and institute legislation to render enforcement actions, either predicated on this data or potentially made possible by it, to be illegal and unenforceable.
And more.
Too late - the politicians have been compromised (Score:2)
Re: Too late - the politicians have been compromis (Score:2)
That is where we must start. Replacing the current politicians, starting at the local level.
I'm not hopeful.
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Constant investigation of databases, storage, and records, as of this of a continuous FOIA request.
This is meaningless without a real consequence. If the consequence is merely that evidence gathered using it is inadmissible, so what? If they stop doing it, there is nothing anyway so there is no incentive to stop. How about prison time for those that knowingly violate the constitution?
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No agency, governmental or otherwise, willingly gives up surveillance or information. We must ignore their claims to do so, and;
Require watchdogs, monitors, and direct supervision.
>
But who can watch the watchmen?
- Juvenal, Satires
Oh look (Score:1)
Yet another Democrat run city plumbing the depths of power abuse. Slashdot is unwittingly chronicling the erosion of civil liberties by libtard governed hell-holes.
San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners On Garbage Trucks [slashdot.org]
In Baltimore and Elsewhere, Police Use Stingrays For Petty Crimes [slashdot.org]
Re:Oh look (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish people would stop with the nickelodeon party line bullshit: That other political party is bad, they are eroding your civil liberties!!!.
Republicans and Democrats are both complicit. The depressingly small number of privacy protecting politicians defies party lines... People need to stop pretending their party is looking out for civil liberties. They aren't and you're still buying their lies, and pointing fingers. Until all sides are accountable they will play this finger wag game, because people like you fall for it.
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I wish people would stop with the nickelodeon party line bullshit: That other political party is bad, they are eroding your civil liberties!!!.
Republicans and Democrats are both complicit. The depressingly small number of privacy protecting politicians defies party lines...
Yep. Both parties are bought and paid for, and ethically (if not morally) bankrupt.
Re:Oh look (Score:4, Insightful)
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If that is the case, nothing is stopping you from posting the same thing when a Republican is being bashed.
Power corrupts, and the massive amount of money (and therefore power) that high-level politicians control is staggering. The partisan games are just a sideshow to distract you from the main corrupt attraction but even when this fact is pointed out you still feel the need to whinge about perceived partisanship.
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That's because in reality, most of the time when D's are doing something bad, R's are doing that bad thing too, but not necessarily the other way around.
Both parties are horrible assholes, but R's are much more horrible.
Re: Oh look (Score:1)
No the d's are much worse. All you need to do is look at cities like Detroit to see how messed up in head d's are. They find new ways to stupidly spend even more tax payer money. Just look at how bad we ate in debt thanks to Obama's vision.
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D's are enthusiastic children who try things which seem like they should be good ideas, but turns aren't out, and maybe they could have figured that out if they thought about it more.
R's, on the other hand, are malicious and evil. Have you ever heard of a Democratic candidate painting his war-hero opponent as having been a sniveling coward, who didn't adopt a child of color, but instead fathered said child upon a woman outside of wedlock?
Good luck with that. (Score:2)
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No kidding. Imagine if the public behaved towards the police the way the police seem to be behaving towards the public. We'd all be in jail for obstruction of justice/perjury etc.
You and I must be reading different news outlets. If we treated the cops like the cops treat us, there wouldn't be any cops left.
#LivesMatter (Score:1, Insightful)
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Is there anyone in Boston that is not a cheater, liar, or supporter of either?
In Boston the crooks and thieves and conspirators are exposed, in other places they continue to run amok.
No automated plate scanners in the Free State (Score:1)
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new hampshire residents also prefer sitting in traffic for hours to public transportation
new hampshire residents think that a few hicks in their northernmost town are the most qualified people to choose the president
new hampshire residents like their booze socialist style, sold exclusively by the state
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New Hampshire has no income tax or sales tax - all our taxes are in property taxes - in one place where you can keep an eye on them. I like that.
New Hampshire allows us to play Texas Hold-em poker - while Texas itself does not! (Oh, the irony)
New Hampshire does not penalize you for not wearing a seat-belt or a helmet (as long as you are an adult).
Oh, and good luck devising an effective public transportation system given New Hampshire terrain and population density.
So there.
Gee (Score:2)