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Billions of license plate scans are part of a private surveillance database
The US government might have reconsidered its plans for license plate recognition, but companies haven't -- and they've raised serious privacy concerns in the process. Motherboard has posted an exposé detailing the Digital Recognition Network, a privately run database that collects legions of plate recognition scans (roughly 9 billion to date) from repo drivers with camera-equipped cars. The system automatically captures both the plates and locations of every car they drive by, making it possible to track the movement of car owners across the US over months or even years. Anyone with access could find out where you live, work and socialize.
[...] As you might have already suspected, this automatic data gathering creates many issues. For one, most of the vehicles in the database are of completely innocent people who have no way of knowing if they're even included in the data set. And while a spokesperson for DRN said the company "takes data security seriously" and doesn't allow access without its approval, there have been instances where unauthorized people have obtained that access. It's feasible that users (approved and otherwise) could exploit this for stalking or gaining the upper hand in court without revealing sources.
Law enforcement can also use the system, and DRN's sibling brand Vigilant Solutions sells the tech to government agencies. That raises the potential of rogue officers using the plate tracking to intimidate protesters or witnesses of police abuses.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:28AM (6 children)
Not only that but when you are in public there are few boundaries as far as what pictures someone can take. Couple that with easy access to public records (which is as it should be) and the fact that there's no limit to aggregating data, here you go: The surveillance society that I've warned to many was coming is, and has been, here. And guess what? It's not going to get better ...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:08AM (3 children)
s/to many/too many/
keep it sexy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:18AM (2 children)
Both to and too are grammatically valid in that sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:31AM (1 child)
Actually, "too" is not grammatically correct in that sentence. "To" is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:31AM
Ok, it is : )
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 19 2019, @03:42AM
It's not going to get better ...
As long as nobody has the advantage, it's all good.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:22AM
You required a commercial release form for use of any 'public' photographs of people for any for-profit purpose. This is why you never see streets populated with people unless they are film extras who signed a commercial release form for the particular image or scene they were a part of. What is happening here is the erosion of 'private' intellectual property in public locations. But the average american is too dense/uneducated to notice that small bit of nuance between legality to film and legality to use.
This should never have been allowed, but since it worked in the pro-authoritarians favor as part of the military-industrial complex, it was tacitly allowed, and since no one could articulate the problem and make either a legal challenge to it, or push through legislation outlawing it, it was never forbidden, even though it should entail civil liability if not criminal liability and stalking charges.
In fact that recent Falwell photo shot had gotten permission from one of the sons, who was named on the photograph and was how the journalists had flagged it.