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A
discussion about massive data collection by cameras that can automatically read
vehicle license plates (LPRs) has been going on for years, but the Wall
Street Journal reports that this is one issue that politicians and the
public are not talking about enough.
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There
are some laws about LPRs, but they're often relegated to questions about how
long law enforcement can keep the data, not if they should be vacuuming up all
the information in the first place.
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Both the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have been
calling on the public to speak out against the practice, saying it can be used
to determine much more than when a particular vehicle was in a particular
place.
When you're driving
on a public road, your license plate is public information. You could legally
sit on your front porch and write down the plate numbers of every car that
drives by, then put all of that information into a spreadsheet and track when
people leave for work and who gets pizza delivered every Tuesday. One question
that isn't being asked loudly enough, according to the Wall Street Journal, is whether it's a good idea for
the government to automate being such a nosy neighbor.
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