·        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.

·        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.

·        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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