License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars (wired.com) 15
Wired reports on "AI-powered cameras mounted on cars and trucks, initially designed to capture license plates, but which are now photographing political lawn signs outside private homes, individuals wearing T-shirts with text, and vehicles displaying pro-abortion bumper stickers — all while recordi00ng the precise locations of these observations..."
The detailed photographs all surfaced in search results produced by the systems of DRN Data, a license-plate-recognition (LPR) company owned by Motorola Solutions. The LPR system can be used by private investigators, repossession agents, and insurance companies; a related Motorola business, called Vigilant, gives cops access to the same LPR data. However, files shared with WIRED by artist Julia Weist, who is documenting restricted datasets as part of her work, show how those with access to the LPR system can search for common phrases or names, such as those of politicians, and be served with photographs where the search term is present, even if it is not displayed on license plates... Beyond highlighting the far-reaching nature of LPR technology, which has collected billions of images of license plates, the research also shows how people's personal political views and their homes can be recorded into vast databases that can be queried.
"It really reveals the extent to which surveillance is happening on a mass scale in the quiet streets of America," says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. "That surveillance is not limited just to license plates, but also to a lot of other potentially very revealing information about people."
DRN, in a statement issued to WIRED, said it complies with "all applicable laws and regulations...." Over more than a decade, DRN has amassed more than 15 billion "vehicle sightings" across the United States, and it claims in its marketing materials that it amasses more than 250 million sightings per month. Images in DRN's commercial database are shared with police using its Vigilant system, but images captured by law enforcement are not shared back into the wider database. The system is partly fueled by DRN "affiliates" who install cameras in their vehicles, such as repossession trucks, and capture license plates as they drive around. Each vehicle can have up to four cameras attached to it, capturing images in all angles. These affiliates earn monthly bonuses and can also receive free cameras and search credits...
"License plate recognition (LPR) technology supports public safety and community services, from helping to find abducted children and stolen vehicles to automating toll collection and lowering insurance premiums by mitigating insurance fraud," Jeremiah Wheeler, the president of DRN, says in a statement... Wheeler did not respond to WIRED's questions about whether there are limits on what can be searched in license plate databases, why images of homes with lawn signs but no vehicles in sight appeared in search results, or if filters are used to reduce such images.
Privacy experts shared their reactions with Wired
The detailed photographs all surfaced in search results produced by the systems of DRN Data, a license-plate-recognition (LPR) company owned by Motorola Solutions. The LPR system can be used by private investigators, repossession agents, and insurance companies; a related Motorola business, called Vigilant, gives cops access to the same LPR data. However, files shared with WIRED by artist Julia Weist, who is documenting restricted datasets as part of her work, show how those with access to the LPR system can search for common phrases or names, such as those of politicians, and be served with photographs where the search term is present, even if it is not displayed on license plates... Beyond highlighting the far-reaching nature of LPR technology, which has collected billions of images of license plates, the research also shows how people's personal political views and their homes can be recorded into vast databases that can be queried.
"It really reveals the extent to which surveillance is happening on a mass scale in the quiet streets of America," says Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. "That surveillance is not limited just to license plates, but also to a lot of other potentially very revealing information about people."
DRN, in a statement issued to WIRED, said it complies with "all applicable laws and regulations...." Over more than a decade, DRN has amassed more than 15 billion "vehicle sightings" across the United States, and it claims in its marketing materials that it amasses more than 250 million sightings per month. Images in DRN's commercial database are shared with police using its Vigilant system, but images captured by law enforcement are not shared back into the wider database. The system is partly fueled by DRN "affiliates" who install cameras in their vehicles, such as repossession trucks, and capture license plates as they drive around. Each vehicle can have up to four cameras attached to it, capturing images in all angles. These affiliates earn monthly bonuses and can also receive free cameras and search credits...
"License plate recognition (LPR) technology supports public safety and community services, from helping to find abducted children and stolen vehicles to automating toll collection and lowering insurance premiums by mitigating insurance fraud," Jeremiah Wheeler, the president of DRN, says in a statement... Wheeler did not respond to WIRED's questions about whether there are limits on what can be searched in license plate databases, why images of homes with lawn signs but no vehicles in sight appeared in search results, or if filters are used to reduce such images.
Privacy experts shared their reactions with Wired
- "Perhaps [people] want to express themselves in their communities, to their neighbors, but they don't necessarily want to be logged into a nationwide database that's accessible to police authorities." — Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union
- "When government or private companies promote license plate readers, they make it sound like the technology is only looking for lawbreakers or people suspected of stealing a car or involved in an amber alert, but that's just not how the technology works. The technology collects everyone's data and stores that data often for immense periods of time." — Dave Maass, an EFF director of investigations
- "The way that the country is set up was to protect citizens from government overreach, but there's not a lot put in place to protect us from private actors who are engaged in business meant to make money." — Nicole McConlogue, associate law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law (who has researched license-plate-surveillance systems)
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.
Precisely (Score:2)
"The way that the country is set up was to protect citizens from government overreach, but there's not a lot put in place to protect us from private actors who are engaged in business meant to make money." — Nicole McConlogue, associate law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law (who has researched license-plate-surveillance systems)
My exact argument the last time this came up.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. The slipper slope that could turn us into England. We are a nation of people's indoctrinated on the premise that only criminals are arrested, even if that statement out loud seems absurd to us. The average citizen of the US learns the way the world works in small pieces through television drama and will double, even triple down that its all true if that belief is tested.
Until they get caught up in it, in which case, welcome to the inside.
Remind me (Score:4)
Remind me again, the USA has free speech and the right to association. The East German Stassi would be jealous of this spy-ware.
This is the same as demanding 'good' guys have back-doors to communication systems. While the obvious flaw is, bad guys can open doors too. The dangerous flaw is, the government uses the equipment to commit crimes.
Re: (Score:2)
The East German Stassi would be jealous of this spy-ware.
Yes, they would. Technology has always been an arms race. The Stassi would be jealous of much of our current technology, from smartphones to USB sticks to SD cards.
All technology can be used both for good, and for evil. Thankfully, we do not have a law enforcement system that abuses people like the East Germans did. Instead, we have a steadily declining crime rate (with the exception of a spike that came with the pandemic). As a result of widespread adoption of body cameras, police who break the law are *le
Bumper stickers (Score:3, Interesting)
Always wait to put on the bumper stickers until after the election.
Re: (Score:2)
How does that old Soviet joke go?
"A man exclaimed, 'The leader is an idiot!' and was overheard by the secret police. As they took him into custody, the man protested that he had been talking about the OLD leader, not the current one. To which the cops replied, 'You can't fool us. WE know who the idiot is.'"
Computer Vision 101 Homework Assignment (Score:1)
why images of homes with lawn signs but no vehicles in sight appeared in search results
That's an easy question. Their computer vision algorithms are simply looking for text within rectangles.
Political Yard Signs (Score:3, Insightful)
If I put a political sign in my yard, I'm pretty sure I want people to see it, and I'm not afraid of people associating me with the political message.
The same holds if I wear a t-shirt with writing on it or walking around in public without a mask.
Why would anyone expect privacy for actions done in public?
Re: (Score:2)
Why would anyone expect privacy for actions done in public?
Why would anyone expect the average American to have a lick of sense?
Re: (Score:2)
If I put a political sign in my yard, I'm pretty sure I want people to see it, and I'm not afraid of people associating me with the political message.
But this isn't your front yard. In general, if I see a car, I don't know who owns it, so one can promote a cause with a bumper sticker, while remaining anonymous. Or rather, I could.
I'd like to see a project to pollute this data (Score:2)
A national database of license plate numbers whose assignees want them printed on T-shirts, yard signs, bumper stickers, so they appear all over the country.
We have the opportunity to largely destroy the usefulness of this data through concerted mass action. If it's not a government-owned project, and the numbers aren't actually license plates, what prevents people from displaying numbers all over the country to get sucked into these readers?
One could even foresee an e-ink display on cars that would display
Re: (Score:2)
For this kind of thing to work, you'd have to get people to buy into this concept on a large scale.
Most of us actually *want* police to be able to use plate scanners to find criminals. We certainly don't want to diminish their ability to do this!
So good luck with your plan. I'm not in.
Bunper Stickers (Score:1)
Yet it doesnâ(TM)t detect anti-abortion, bumper stickers? How curious!
We're fucked (Score:2)
We need a law banning the use of data more than 10 years old for any purpose other than non violent felony crime. A metadata or log purging law may be a good idea too. No company should be allowed to retain metadata logs, without properly anonymizing it, more than 10 years old. That doesn't mean a website like Facebook or slashdot has to delete 10 year old comments, but they should delete who accessed something or what IP address was used to make the comment. Basically log file deletion. Also, any activity
Re: (Score:2)
*non violent felony crime prosecution.