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How License- Plate Scanning Compromises Your Privacy – Feature – Car and Driver. Towing companies are a necessary evil when it comes to parking enforcement and property repossession. But in the Google Earth we now inhabit, tow trucks do more than just yank cars out of loading zones. They use license- plate readers (LPRs) to assemble a detailed profile of where your car will be and when. That’s an unnecessary evil. But private companies, such as repo crews, also photograph millions of plates a day, with scanners mounted on tow trucks and even on purpose- built camera cars whose sole mission is to drive around and collect plate scans. Each scan is GPS- tagged and stamped with the date and time, feeding a massive data trove to any law- enforcement agency—or government- approved private industry—willing to pay for it.
And the companies that sell specialized monitoring software that assembles all these sightings into a . Brian Hauss, a legal fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says: “The whole point is so you can figure out somebody’s long- term location. Unless there are limits on how those transactions can be processed, I think it’s just a matter of time until there are significant privacy violations, if they haven’t already occurred.”. How Is This Even Legal? License- plate- reader companies don’t have access to DMV registrations, so while they can track your car, they don’t know it’s yours. That information is guarded by the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1. There are plenty of exceptions, including for insurance companies and private investigators.
LPR companies say only two groups can use its software to find the person behind the plate: law- enforcement agencies and repossession companies. In addition, the encrypted databases keep a log of each plate search and allow the ability to restrict access. Vigilant Solutions of California and its partner, Texas- based Digital Recognition Network, boast at least 2 billion license- plate scans since starting the country’s largest private license- plate database, the National Vehicle Location Service, in 2. Since many are duplicates and never deleted, analytics can paint a vivid picture of any motorist.
Predicting where and when someone will drive is relatively easy; software can sort how many times a car is spotted in a certain area and, when fed enough data, can generate a person’s driving history over time. But they aren't always easy to spot.
Both cops and private users hide LRPs in almost anthing. Vigilant alone adds 1.
LPRs, he says, capture “momentary, point- in- time” information. How To Install Faux Stone Over Brick Fireplace on this page. He asks, “Is it just so you can have a giant haystack that you can search whenever you want, for whatever purpose you want?”. We read each of the bills to gauge their language on data security as it might best protect citizens. We rated as “Strong” those that specified the most detailed, far- reaching data policies emphasizing personal privacy. In December 2. 01. Boston suspended its LPR program after police accidentally revealed DMV- tied information from its cameras to the Boston Globe. While that one incident highlighted failings in the department’s data policy, plenty of agencies don’t even have such a thing.
Some keep data for days, others for years. In most states, police can monitor you with LPRs without serving a search warrant or court order. And this February, a Department of Homeland Security proposal for a privately hosted federal plate- tracking system was scrapped days after the Washington Post exposed it.
The catch: Every month, officers would have to serve 2. Pink Ladies Hot Animated Wallpaper Hot Screensavers. Vigilant. Miss the quota, lose the cameras. Such lists, according to the Los Angeles Times investigation that uncovered the offer, commonly come from debt- collector “warrants” against drivers with unpaid municipal fines. MVTrac recently completed a beta test that tracked Acuras at specific areas and times, logging info including the exact models and colors. That information, far more real- time than state- registration data, could be gold to automakers, marketers, and insurance companies. Nine states have passed LPR laws, and four of those states bar private companies such as Vigilant from operating or selling their wares . Some of those states limit usage to legitimate investigations by police and traffic agencies.
And some set standards for data security and establish formal processes (such as requiring warrants) and public audits. Maine answered in 2.
California, Arkansas, Utah, Vermont, Florida, Tennessee, and Maryland. In Utah, legislators banned private companies from using LPRs but amended the law after Vigilant and Digital Recognition . After helping to kill a similar bill in California this past May, the companies are now suing Arkansas, which followed Utah’s original letter in restricting LPRs to police use.
At least nine states have pending bills that regulate plate readers. Smaller cameras; smartphone apps that can pick out plates from live video; and the . Because police ostensibly use LPRs for public safety, drivers will likely have to accept some erosion of their privacy behind the wheel.
But when corporations start buying tracking data in the name of “customer focus” and lawmakers look the other way, we say it’s time to bring on the James Bond–style plate flippers.