#alprs

The technology, called SignalTrace, would turn ALPR cameras from devices focused on tracking cars to ones that can more readily track the location of particular people

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/this-company-will-add-phone-airpod-and-smartwatch-trackers-to-license-plate-readers

Yesterday we filed an amicus brief asking the Virginia Supreme Court to hold that the state’s law enforcement agencies must purge plate information they collect using Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) because it’s personal information. A state law called the Government Data Collection & Dissemination Practices Act, enacted in response to concerns over the increasing use of technologies by governments and companies to compile detailed information about citizens’ private lives, requires agencies to delete personal information. We want the court to protect our privacy and establish that the bar is high for the police to retain personal information.

Mounted on squad cars and at fixed, roadside locations such as street lights, ALPRs are sophisticated camera systems that read license plates and record the time, date, and location a particular car was encountered. ALPRs typically have a continuous connection to a computer server and, in many cases, are never turned off. They can scan up to 1,600 plates per minute, capturing the plate numbers of millions of innocent, law-abiding drivers who aren’t under any kind of investigation and just living their daily lives.

The data can be mingled with other law enforcement database and enable police to learn where we are and when, whether it’s at our house of worship, our doctor’s office, a political meeting, or a gun show. Harrison Neal, a resident of Fairfax County in Virginia, is concerned by these ongoing privacy violations. The Fairfax County Police Department uses ALPRs that read every license plate that goes by, and stores the records for up to a year. Mr. Neal’s plate was collected at least twice. He sued with the help of the ACLU of Virginia, arguing that the Data Act requires the police to purge their ALPR data. (In California, a 2015 law supported by EFF also added data collected by ALPR as “personal information.”)

More than 1,700 cameras have been reported in the United States and more than 5,600 have been reported around the world.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/the-open-source-project-deflock-is-mapping-license-plate-surveillance-cameras-all-over-the-world

Signed By the Governor: Sweeping Vermont Privacy Law Will Hinder Several Federal Surveillance Programs

MONTPELIER, Vt. (June 10, 2016) – Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin has signed a sweeping bill that establishes robust privacy protections in the state into law. It not only limits warrantless surveillance and helps ensure electronic privacy in Vermont, it will also hinder several federal surveillance programs that rely on cooperation and data from state and local law enforcement.

The new law bans…

ALPR Location Tracking: A State/Federal Partnership that can be Stopped