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takyon writes:

A bill in the California Senate would allow drivers to cover their license plates when parked to prevent automated license plate readers from reading them. Law enforcement (or somebody else) would have to manually lift the cover to obtain the license plate number:

If the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a San Diego-based Republican state senator have their way, it will soon become legal for Californians to cover their license plates while parked as a way to thwart automated license plate readers.

[...] As written, the new senate bill would allow for law enforcement to manually lift a cover, or flap, as a way to manually inspect a plate number. The idea is not only to prevent dragnet license plate data collection by law enforcement, but also by private companies. A California company, Vigilant Solutions, is believed to have the largest private ALPR database in America, with billions of records.

Ars is unaware of a commercially available product that would allow a license plate to be easily blocked in this fashion. A man in Florida was arrested earlier this year for using a miniature black screen that could be activated via remote control as a way to block his plate number when he passed through automated toll booths.

The new bill will come up before the California State Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on Tuesday, May 9—the first stop in the legislative process.

The California Police Chiefs Association has already filed its opposition to the bill. In a letter to Sen. Joel Anderson, the group argued that the bill would only benefit one group: "those who are trying to evade law enforcement and detection." Similarly, the bill has faced resistance from the California Public Parking Association, among other groups.

Related:
DHS Wants a National License Plate Tracking System
Debt Collectors Fight Privacy Advocates Over License Plate Readers
Arizona City Using Fake Cacti to Hide License Plate Cameras
Louisiana Governor Vetoes License Plate Reader Bill, Citing Privacy Concerns.
Open Source License Plate Reader: Little Brother Strikes Back!
Federal Agents Enlisted Local Police to Scan License Plates at Gun Shows
Amazon Wants to Scan Your License Plate

Original Submission

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "allow drivers to cover their license plates when parked" - https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/new-bill-would-allow-california-drivers-to-shield-license-plates-from-scanners/
3. "Electronic Frontier Foundation" - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3700991-Sb-712-Support-Letter-Eff-Final.html
4. "San Diego-based Republican state senator have their way" - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3700992-Fact-Sheet-sb712.html
5. "the new senate bill" - https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB712
6. "arrested earlier this year" - http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-driver-allegedly-remote-controlled-license-plate-concealer/story?id=44757645
7. "opposition" - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3700994-Vigilant-Solutions-Oppo-Letters.html#document/p4/a352258
8. "resistance" - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3701108-201720180SB712-Senate-Transportation-and-Housing.html#document/p6/a352260
9. "DHS Wants a National License Plate Tracking System" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/02/22/2158204
10. "Debt Collectors Fight Privacy Advocates Over License Plate Readers" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/05/09/2039233
11. "Arizona City Using Fake Cacti to Hide License Plate Cameras" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/05/15/2028233
12. "Louisiana Governor Vetoes License Plate Reader Bill, Citing Privacy Concerns." - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/06/21/1238244
13. "Open Source License Plate Reader: Little Brother Strikes Back!" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/12/06/1342259
14. "Federal Agents Enlisted Local Police to Scan License Plates at Gun Shows" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/10/05/0313240
15. "Amazon Wants to Scan Your License Plate" - https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/10/22/159200
16. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=20077

printed from SoylentNews, California Senate Bill Could Thwart Automated License Plate Readers on 2024-04-19 16:15:38