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posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 25 2015, @07:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the trust-no-one dept.

Ars Technica used a public records request to obtain a large dataset of license plate scans from 33 License Plate Readers (LPRs) in Oakland, California:

OAKLAND, Calif.—If you have driven in Oakland any time in the last few years, chances are good that the cops know where you’ve been, thanks to their 33 automated license plate readers (LPRs).

Now Ars knows too.

In response to a public records request, we obtained the entire LPR dataset of the Oakland Police Department (OPD), including more than 4.6 million reads of over 1.1 million unique plates between December 23, 2010 and May 31, 2014. The dataset is likely one of the largest ever publicly released in the United States—perhaps in the world.

After analyzing this data with a custom-built visualization tool, Ars can definitively demonstrate the data's revelatory potential. Anyone in possession of enough data can often—but not always—make educated guesses about a target’s home or workplace, particularly when someone’s movements are consistent (as with a regular commute).

It seems the cars of police officers, politicians, and others doing the spying should have been captured by the LPRs too. A prize for the first person to separate out what they've been up to...

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @08:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @08:59PM (#162527)

    Find out where they've been. Find out where their spouses have been. Find out where their children have been. Publish it all and let them see how it feels.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @09:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @09:16PM (#162530)

    If someone were to do that, they would be labeled a terrorist or a traitor and arrested.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @09:35PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @09:35PM (#162534)

      So... do it anonymously?

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @11:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 25 2015, @11:14PM (#162555)

    Don't forget to compare their locations to their expense reports. ;-)

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2015, @02:44AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2015, @02:44AM (#162594)

    I love the idea of setting up crowd sourced cameras / license plate scanners where only data on rich, powerful, and their faithful servants is recorded. We track every cop, politician, rich CEO fuck etc.

    I'm sure laws will be passed, in response, that will make it a crime for surveillance directed at these powerful people, and at the same time expand surveillance of ordinary folks. But, some laws were made to be broken.

    It would scare the shit out of these fucks. And they need, at least, that.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by undefinedvalue on Thursday March 26 2015, @03:33PM

    by undefinedvalue (1755) on Thursday March 26 2015, @03:33PM (#162759)

    > Find out where they've been. Find out where their spouses have been. Find out where their children have been. Publish it all and let them see how it feels.

    I can't believe that I just read this. It is outrageously immoral. At least the people gathering this data are attempting to use it for purposes they believe are good. This just outright malicious and stoops below their level.

    I'm sure there are other solutions that don't involve compromising the privacy and safety of children.