Submitted via IRC for Bytram
The Attorney General of Ohio has banned cops and the Feds from accessing the US state's database of drivers' license plates and faces until the officers and g-men receive adequate privacy compliance training.
"I share the privacy and civil-liberty concerns of those who fear misuse of this powerful identification technology," said the Buckeye State's AG Dave Yost this week.
"Ohio's database is protected by limited access, regular auditing and strict rules about the kind of searches that can be conducted. That applies to state and local law enforcement as well as federal law enforcement."
Yost conducted a 30-day probe after internal documents and emails from federal and local agencies, obtained by eggheads at Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology and shared with the Washington Post last month, revealed that the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other agencies, have freely searched Ohio's DMV database for license plates to retrieve drivers' faces.
The crime-fighters were searching not just for suspects but also witnesses, victims, and other folks. All of this was conducted without the explicit consent from millions of Americans, and at least some without any warrants: the Feds and plod just had to ask DMV officials nicely in many cases. Yost's investigation found that a total of 11,070 searches by law enforcement had been made since 2017. Out of these searches, 418 were conducted by federal agencies. The vast majority – 10,652 – were made by state police.
Any requests to access to Ohio's DMV databases, which currently contains 24 million images, will now have to go through its Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI). Staff members will directly handle the searches.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @05:53PM
A step in the right direction, from Ohio no less! Hurray for anything not totally shitty these days!
(Score: 5, Funny) by DannyB on Friday August 16 2019, @05:53PM (1 child)
Can the AG be charged with obstruction of injustice?
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 17 2019, @07:55PM
Not till he leaves office, otherwise it is a clear conflict of interest! /accidentally_serious
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @08:11PM
"In order to receive federal funding otherwise eligible for, States shall make their livestock databases directly searchable by state, local and federal officers charged with public safety functions"
Watch for how long they will keep up the "reeesistance".
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday August 17 2019, @08:05PM
https://www.nbc-2.com/story/25334275/deputy-fired-for-improperly-accessing-info-about-governor-nbc2-anchors-others [nbc-2.com]
https://www.news4jax.com/news/investigations/i-team-unauthorized-searches-made-on-law-enforcement-database [news4jax.com]
First Amendment auditor Jeff Gray is a particularly egregious case, they made hundreds of such searches on him. A common thing is for an activist not to identify themselves due to state ID laws not forcing you to ID yourself unless you are detained or arrested (varies by state). So instead they will leave and stalk the activist in their patrol cars, in order to find their vehicle so they can search the license plate number in one of these databases. The remedy is to take an Uber to and from your audit location, or park really far away.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]