Gun-Show Customers’ License Plates Scanned

[jasons]

This has been going on for years. Since 2009 at least.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-futu...ndees-license-plate-readers-new-emails-reveal

 

[drgrant]

Seriously though, why would the .gov feel so strongly about this if it wasn't to round out their database of who might own guns in this country? Nobody's buying the bullshit about caring that guns are getting smuggled into Mexico. And why might they want such a database?

Well, that excuse might have some legitimacy up front (I mean from an LE standpoint, obviously not WRT privacy) but rest assured it will be used to "side smear" everyone and everything into databases; making all that crap you see on those docudrama TV shows a reality; you can find out where someone's been just by querying a database in the right way. Part of the problem (by design, of course) is there are no civil rights protections or limitations on the surveillance. For example there's currently no law that says "if ALPR is being used on the side of the road any data that doesn't involve an active violation, warrant or AMBER alert on the vehicle should be scrubbed within 30 seconds".

-Mike

 

[CatSnoutSoup]

What they want to keep tabs on people who buy food?

Just foods that go POP!

Popcorn, popsicles, pop'n'fresh dough, pop rocks, popovers, soda pop, poptarts, and of course any breakfast cereal that snaps, crackles, or pops.

 

[Kevin_NH]

Well, that excuse might have some legitimacy up front (I mean from an LE standpoint, obviously not WRT privacy) but rest assured it will be used to "side smear" everyone and everything into databases; making all that crap you see on those docudrama TV shows a reality; you can find out where someone's been just by querying a database in the right way.

It's already here. It is common for private customers to buy access to ALPR data, including insurance companies and repo agencies. The biggest databases are Digital Recognition Network and Vigilant Solutions, they store a photo of the vehicle, plate, and a GPS and time marker, and available to subscribers worldwide. Both lobby strongly for the expansion of ALPR and against limits on data retention.

The cameras also store every plate in a vast database, just like the cameras do for police agencies. But unlike the police agencies’ data, privately held data is sold for the right price.

One company, TransUnion’s TLO, which provides personal data to a range of businesses, offers a trove of license plate scans taken nationwide to customers willing to buy the special service.
. . .
When Arkansas outlawed the use of license plate readers by private industry, Digital Recognition Network and Vigilant Solutions initiated a federal lawsuit alleging their First Amendment rights had been violated.

Update: They lost, on a technicality.