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Privacy Electronic Frontier Foundation

EFF Says California Cops Are Illegally Sharing License Plate Data with Anti-Abortion States (yahoo.com) 240

Slashdot reader j3x0n shared this report from California newspaper the Sacramento Bee: In 2015, Democratic Elk Grove Assemblyman Jim Cooper voted for Senate Bill 34, which restricted law enforcement from sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state authorities. In 2023, now-Sacramento County Sheriff Cooper appears to be doing just that. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) a digital rights group, has sent Cooper a letter requesting that the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office cease sharing ALPR data with out-of-state agencies that could use it to prosecute someone for seeking an abortion.

According to documents that the Sheriff's Office provided EFF through a public records request, it has shared license plate reader data with law enforcement agencies in states that have passed laws banning abortion, including Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas. Adam Schwartz, EFF senior staff attorney, called automated license plate readers "a growing threat to everyone's privacy ... that are out there by the thousands in California..." Schwartz said that a sheriff in Texas, Idaho or any other state with an abortion ban on the books could use that data to track people's movements around California, knowing where they live, where they work and where they seek reproductive medical care, including abortions.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office isn't the only one sharing that data; in May, EFF released a report showing that 71 law enforcement agencies in 22 California counties — including Sacramento County — were sharing such data... [Schwartz] said that he was not aware of any cases where ALPR data was used to prosecute someone for getting an abortion, but added, "We think we shouldn't have to wait until the inevitable happens."

In May the EFF noted that the state of Idaho "has enacted a law that makes helping a pregnant minor get an abortion in another state punishable by two to five years in prison."
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EFF Says California Cops Are Illegally Sharing License Plate Data with Anti-Abortion States

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  • Sooner or later (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
    they're gonna start throwing women in prison for life. To make their crazy ideas work they have to declare it Murder One. There's no way around it.

    And women miscarry all the time. So that means every time it happens there's a murder investigation.

    Ever have to defend yourself or a family member from a Murder charge? It ain't fun or cheap.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      And women miscarry all the time. So that means every time it happens there's a murder investigation.

      About 80% of the time in fact. Which makes the whole "life starts at conception" idea completely insane.

      • Essentially, these people want to label every single woman a serial killer.

        Which is weirdly in accordance with their holey book. In there, women are not people, they are property.

    • The irony here is the US went to fight the Taliban, but decades to emulate their treatment of women, when it comes to abortions. Hopefully thatâ(TM)s as far as it goes, but that is still too far.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      50-75% of all natural conceptions naturally terminate, most before a woman ever knew they were pregnant. I do not understand how these Christians can claim that their God intended for all conceptions to go to term when the system created by their God works the way it does.
  • What for? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Mononymous ( 6156676 ) on Saturday July 08, 2023 @02:08PM (#63668723)

    What does anyone think is going to happen with this?
    Alabama can't make it illegal for their residents to do something in California.

  • The US doesn't just allow states to have different laws, this principle is by some states defended.as being essential.
    This independence alone should defend the principle you can legally do different things in different states.
    • by Phydeaux314 ( 866996 ) on Saturday July 08, 2023 @02:44PM (#63668813)

      And states definitely should be able to have different laws! A law against, say, watering lawns makes perfect sense in Arizona but probably isn't necessary in Washington. The key part is that the restrictions should be on things that impact the people when they're in the state. Residents of a state are not the property of the state. I may not be able to set off home fireworks in bone-dry California, but it's pretty challenging to burn the rocks that make up most of Nevada, so California has no reason to be upset that I went to Nevada to play with fireworks.

  • In 2015, Democratic Elk Grove Assemblyman Jim Cooper voted for Senate Bill 34, which restricted law enforcement from sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with out-of-state authorities^w agencies

    Fixed that for them. Other state agencies have no authority in California.

  • but you don't want to give out of state drivers
    free tolls as you can't give that info to other states
    being able to run photo red lights with no tickets
    rack up parking fines and not have to pay them
    speed cameras well out of state can't fine them

  • by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Saturday July 08, 2023 @04:08PM (#63669075)

    Large numbers of Americans don't actually give a flying fuck about freedom. Not really - not when it matters. They care about "their" freedom, but the only freedoms they want others to have are the ones they permit. You are free to do whatever they think you ought to do.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      America is one of the most un-free nations I know. They have a number of constitutional freedoms... but only those. Everything else is tightly regulated or forbidden.

      A friend of mine from the US was in shock when he noticed just what's "legal" here. Drink a beer in a restaurant, outside in the open? Legal. From 16 in most countries. Including just buying it or just opening a can right outside the store and drinking it in plain sight of a cop. Hell, where I'm from he might ask you if you have another one 'ca

  • It is inevitable (Score:4, Informative)

    by haggie ( 957598 ) on Saturday July 08, 2023 @08:13PM (#63669593)

    Any technology that can be used to violate our privacy will eventually be used to violate our privacy by corporations or the government even if that violation is illegal.

  • For almost 2 millennia, the Catholic Church followed Aristotle's philosophy that ensoulment occurred at some point after conception but before quickening. Following WWII, Catholic priests could no longer lambast "Jesus Killers" from the pulpit to rile up congregants and increase spontaneous giving. Noticing some charismatic preachers were having success with anti-abortion sermons, the Catholic Church changed its tune and decided that ensoulment occurs at conception so that they too could author fiery anti

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