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DHS Wants a National License Plate Tracking System

posted by Dopefish on Sunday February 23 2014, @10:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the party-like-it's-1984 dept.

siliconwafer writes "The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking to acquire a vehicle license plate tracking system, to be used at the national level. According to the solicitation obtained by the Washington Post, commercial readers, supplied by a private company, would scan the plate of vehicles and store them in a "National License Plate Recognition" (NLPR) database. This is already being done at the state level, and privacy advocates are up in arms, with EFF and ACLU suing California over their automatic plate readers. Now that this has potential to become a broad and national program."

[ED Note: "Shortly after the Washington Post broke the story on the national plate reading system, it appears the DHS has shelved their plans for the tracking system, by order of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, at least in the interim."]

 
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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by glyph on Sunday February 23 2014, @03:37PM

    by glyph (245) on Sunday February 23 2014, @03:37PM (#5194)

    They will be tracking cars, not people. It's not nearly the same thing for law enforcement purposes, and within accepted practice under current laws.

    Consider Google Glass. Many of the general public are afraid of the privacy implications, but geeks just shrug and tell them privacy in public is at best an illusion.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Sunday February 23 2014, @04:29PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Sunday February 23 2014, @04:29PM (#5206)

    Tracking cars not people, just like 'metadata' only tracks calls, not people.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:43PM (#5241)
    You're full of shill. Since when do we allow a police officer to follow a single vehicle, uninterruptedly, without a warrant? Simply because we can do it by automated means now, approaching continuous (due to the increasing # of cameras, license plate readers, and other surveillance technology), does not magically justify it and make it okay.