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Anyone with a camera and $5 can now have a license plate reader:
Automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), software that allows computers to separate and analyze license plates from camera footage, could soon become ubiquitous in American neighborhoods thanks to a company called Rekor Systems. On Thursday, the firm started selling a product called Watchman. The $5 per month subscription allows homeowners to add the company's OpenALPR software to almost any home security camera.
[...] there are a couple of limitations to the $5 package. The software won't automatically log every single license that passes your home. As a homeowner, you'll also won't be able to obtain someone's name, address and location history from their license plate. That's a feature only law enforcement can access.
[...] privacy advocates fear the technology could be easily abused by both homeowners and law enforcement agencies to erode the privacy of innocent people further. And advocates have good reason to be skeptical of companies like Rekor. Amazon's Ring security service spent the majority of 2019 defending its partnerships with law enforcement agencies. In one instance, a report from Motherboard showed that the company had coached police on how to convince homeowners to hand over their Ring camera footage without a warrant. Similarly, it's easy to imagine a context in which police agencies could abuse the widespread proliferation of technology like OpenALPR.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:43PM
just a few thoughts with no conclusion:
the "surveilance makers" are normal humans too after leaving the office but the surveilance has no office hours and no holidays.
some people want to be "out there". anything that might help them get more exposure will be welcomed.
surveilance is good. the more we (humans) can see makes us know more. the problem is if there are two classes with different access righs: one has unfethered access and the other doesnt. one class will censor some stuff whilst other data will be scrutinizedd down to the last pixel. if you "speak out" anti establishment too much, your pixels will be "blown up" alot, whilst others pixel will be "blured" to point that they are not recognizable anymore...
sadly we will just have to trust "in the basic good of humans" -or- we have to make all surveilance public domain, accesible by anyone anytime (including children). many will believe in "the basic gooodness of humans" and be thankfull for censoring all the bad. ofc, tbh, it is submitting yourself (and your offspring) to live in a bubble made of laundred fake news -aka- the real and sanctioned news?