ACLU: DEA tracks Americans' movements, plans to data-mine license plate records

[23536]

http://blogs.computerworld.com/2020...ents_plans_to_data_mine_license_plate_records

Do you ever feel like you are being watched when you drive? The ACLU believes that feeling of being watched is justified and not only while you're driving. It started with the DEA wanting to expand technology that captures and then stores vehicle license plate data for two years. Although the ACLU had warned that automated license plate readers (ALPRs) are helping to create a "surveillance society" in the USA by tracking our movements, it now seems there may be plans to data mine all those stored plates.

The DEA reportedly wants to use this tech "for ‘intelligence' and to ‘research the movements' of suspects, and for ‘statistical information' which points "toward efforts to data mine license data." In a chilling example of what may come to pass due to data mining license plate records, the ACLU wrote:

The police develop virtual reality glasses that, when the wearer looks at a vehicle, summarize in clear, at-a-glance graphical form various information: the owner's police record, how many points the owner has on his or her license, how far from home the vehicle is, the owner's TSA Pre-Check score, and other data. This creates a negative feedback cycle for some unfortunates, because those whose profile attracts attention are stopped by the police with disproportionate frequency, including for minor infractions-leading to an even worse profile.

License plate scanners are "logging your every move," according to the ACLU, as was previously noted in "surrounded by surveillance: is everything spying on you?" The "technology is rapidly approaching the point where it could be used to reconstruct the entire movements of any individual vehicle." The latest ALPR threat started with the DEA wanting to capture all license plates of vehicles traveling Interstate 15 in Utah. Oddly enough, Utah is considered part of "the border" even though no part of Utah touches the border of Mexico. The government defines "the border" as 100 miles inward from the true border. The ACLU points out that no part of Utah is even within a 100 miles of the real border, but:

As usual, the authorities also tried to package their proposal with all kinds of soothing promises: the data would not be used except to catch drug traffickers and to investigate "serious crimes." The data would not be cross-referenced with other databases containing driver's names (and therefore presumably to the vast realms of other information that that would be available). The data would not be used to locate people with outstanding traffic tickets and misdemeanor warrants.

This is what you call sugaring a pill so that people will swallow it. Anyone who thinks all of the above will never happen doesn't know much about history. We've seen this dynamic many times-a new surveillance technique is unveiled supposedly for use only against the most extreme criminals and is quickly expanded to much broader use.

cont. http://blogs.computerworld.com/2020...ents_plans_to_data_mine_license_plate_records

 

[shimazu]

sounds like a losing battle.

all well and good until public opinion shifts and the politicians that used to be all about cracking down on drugs flip flop to the other side and cut this stupid ass organization's funding to the same amount as inner city schools.

They're gonna scanning people with something like this

 

[23536]

I may just move back to New York City. You don't even have to have a car there.

In the meantime, I stay on back roads when I want to be incognito.

And don't carry any electronic devices capable of transmission. See here:

2 out of every 3 Americans lost Fourth Amendment protections to DHS

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Doesn't effect me, I don't own a car, don't plan on ever owning one again.