Private license plate scanning is happening in your neighborhood :mad:

[Viper Girl]

This is incredible... Companies scanning car plates, and keeping a database for as long as they want...
Govt is doing it too, but has a limit on how long they can keep the info? yeah right...

We've heard about Insurance Co's watching youtube videos for plates while on a track... This is really getting absurd..


http://rt.com/usa/license-scanners-private-database-046/

http://consumerist.com/2014/03/05/the-repo-man-might-be-scanning-your-cars-license-plate-and-location-selling-the-data/

[ACRucrazy]

Yep, local police here are doing it too.
The thing that is causing a fuss is there is nothing mandating how long they can keep that info for. You can call in and provide your info and they can tell you what they have on file, date, time and location to where you were.

Big brother BS IMO.

[ViperTony]

We're in the process of installing Smart Bus cameras on our school buses to capture the bastards speeding past stopped school buses at bus stops. There's live monitoring, i.e. the cameras the turn on when the lights are activated on the bus. The video feed is live and monitored real-time by the company. Once the it's confirmed, the video is sent to the local police, $450 ticket issued. I had to validate all of the data privacy protection around this and I do know THIS data will never become public but we're a democrat controlled state so this may change by the time I post this. I'll look into how scanned plates are handled in our police dept. something tells me there's a loophole for that data.

[Ohiotj]

You have no right to privacy while in public. They can track my polish a$$ all over. Doesn't bother me one bit.

[Bugman Jeff]

Your smart phone is keeping tabs on your location and activities far better than any license plate scanning ever will. If you have your phone in the car, the license plate data is just corroborating what is already known.

[whitebeard]

This was reported in WSJ in Sept 2012. The information has been used for crime fighting (outstanding warrants, wanted for questioning, etc) and has done very well in that aspect. But this is a tool that can be abused easily. And I would be very concerned as to security of the information or its veracity/authentication.

Beginning paragraph
For more than two years, the police in San Leandro, Calif., photographed Mike Katz-Lacabe's Toyota Tercel almost weekly. They have shots of it cruising along Estudillo Avenue near the library, parked at his friend's house and near a coffee shop he likes. In one case, they snapped a photo of him and his two daughters getting out of a car in his driveway.
Mr. Katz-Lacabe isn't charged with, or suspected of, any crime. Local police are tracking his vehicle automatically, using cameras mounted on a patrol car that record every nearby vehicle—license plate, time and location.

Part of article
Data about a typical American is collected in more than 20 different ways during everyday activities, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. Fifteen years ago, more than half of these types of surveillance tools were unavailable or not in widespread use, says Col. Lisa Shay, a professor of electrical engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who studies tracking.
"What would the 1950s Soviet Union have done with the technology we have now?" says Col. Shay. "We don't have a police state in this country, but we have the technology."
Law-enforcement agents say they are using this information only to catch bad guys.
During the past five years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has distributed more than $50 million in federal grants to law-enforcement agencies—ranging from sprawling Los Angeles to little Crisp County, Ga., pop. 23,000—for automated license-plate recognition systems. A 2010 study estimates that more than a third of large U.S. police agencies use automated plate-reading systems.
The information captured is considerable. Through a public-records act request, The Journal obtained two years' worth of plate information from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department in California. From Sept. 10, 2010, to Aug. 27, 2012, the sheriff's cameras captured about 6 million license-plate scans.

Officers can also tap private license-plate location databases such as the two being built by former repossession agents, Digital Recognition Network Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, and MVTrac of Palatine, Ill., a unit of MVConnect.
MVTrac's Mr. Jackson, spent more than 20 years in the repossession business, says that at first he saw plate readers simply as a way to help find cars he was trying to repossess. Then he realized the opportunity to build a national network.
He began installing cameras on the vehicles of other auto-recovery agents, who pay subscription fees to use the cameras. MVTrac says hundreds of its systems are operating nationwide. The camera systems give drivers an instant alert when they scan a car wanted for repossession. The alert doesn't include the owner's identity. Agents also get a commission when a finance company buys data about a plate they scanned.

Artical (by subscription)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390443995604578004723603576296

[plumcrazy]

this is only the tip of the iceberg. this stuff is going to get so much worse in the near future. forget speeding or rolling thru stop signs anymore

[NI-KA]

Sounds like when you are at the track you should take your plates off and not go out with your phone in the car.

[KickinAssphault]

So, when you're having a nice cruise at one-fiddy, make sure you have WiFi turned off and are in Airplane mode! :)

[Bugman Jeff]

So, when you're having a nice cruise at one-fiddy, make sure you have WiFi turned off and are in Airplane mode! :)

Get out your tin foil hats. Even when it's "off," most modern phones still send and receive signals, primarily time and location. The only way to make sure the phone is truly off and can't record/transmit your location is to remove the battery(which isn't possible on most phones). Even then, depending on the phone and if you're close enough to a cell tower, they can transmit data the same way RFID chips do(though range is extremely limited so you've got to be pretty close to a transmitter to send any data).

Also, I once put my phone in airplane mode, and threw it. Worst. Transformer. Ever.

[AZTVR]

Get out your tin foil hats. Even when it's "off," most modern phones still send and receive signals, primarily time and location..

And forget about wearing that tin foil hat. That's silly. What you want to do is wrap it around the phone. Nothing goes out and nothing comes in.


Sounds like when you are at the track you should take your plates off and not go out with your phone in the car.

They can track you driving to and from the track, and see your internet traffic the day or week before from when you are signing up or checking the track schedule! You have to be a little more covert now than just "on the track" time ! LOL (No, I don't think that it has gotten that far......... yet)

[ACRucrazy]

Sounds like when you are at the track you should take your plates off and not go out with your phone in the car.

You should. There were several members on VCA who shared their insurance company contacted them and dropped them because of videos of their car online "lapping" at a VCA event. The plates were the give away to the companies.

[Viper Girl]

Also, I once put my phone in airplane mode, and threw it. Worst. Transformer. Ever.

:smilielol::smilielol::smilielol::smilielol::smili elol:

[big-n-italian]

You have no right to privacy while in public. They can track my polish a$$ all over. Doesn't bother me one bit.


exactly what i was thinking. i got nothing to hide, and besides that, when did license plates on cars in public become private anyway? if you dont like it, put your car in the garage and stay home.

[LeadfootRT10]

exactly what i was thinking. i got nothing to hide, and besides that, when did license plates on cars in public become private anyway? if you dont like it, put your car in the garage and stay home.

Agree completely. I don't know what universe you live in if you think license plates on public roads are some how private......now the true question is, how long should the data be kept? Of course, the longer the data is kept the clearer the picture that will emerge. The easier it is to track down a criminal. So far there have been no reports of this data being abused, that doesn't mean it's impossible. But i don't usually react to paranoid fears someone is out to get me when a technology is being used to keep my city safer.

So long as we have elected officials we have some measure of control. If you don't like current policies question your local elected officials. If they don't give the answers you like, get more involved. There have been several successful local efforts to ban speed cameras. I imagine similar efforts could be waged against license plate scanning. These are local matters and individuals can be very effective at changing local ordinances.

[Sybil TF]

Scary....

[Bugman Jeff]

Toll booths and gas stations have been recording license plates for years, and the only people affected are the ones blowing past the tolls and filling up without paying. General plate scanning could also be a big help is stolen vehicle recovery or amber alert type situations. Sure, a system like this has the potential for abuse, but I just don't see it happening.

[Viper Girl]

To me its not an expectation of privacy on public roads and license plates... People take video's of Vipers and other similar types of cars just driving down the road... Some of that is to be expected.
My issue is the constant data collection going on Worldwide... The GPS location, time and date stamp of everything you do... How long is the data being kept, and who has access to it?


Totally different topic... Last night I got invited to a local corvette club who had a guest speaker from the Sheriffs dept outlining the latest identity theft devices... how with a 3d printer criminals can make just about anything including a full ATM overlay, to steal debit cards with PIN codes :furious: which then get sold or used usually before anyone has a clue the info has been stolen.

It's getting harder and harder to keep your private info from becoming public knowlege... queue in these large databases of info... That's freaking scary.

[big-n-italian]

My issue is the constant data collection going on Worldwide... The GPS location, time and date stamp of everything you do... How long is the data being kept, and who has access to it?

Totally different topic... Last night I got invited to a local corvette club who had a guest speaker from the Sheriffs dept outlining the latest identity theft devices... how with a 3d printer criminals can make just about anything including a full ATM overlay, to steal debit cards with PIN codes :furious: which then get sold or used usually before anyone has a clue the info has been stolen.

It's getting harder and harder to keep your private info from becoming public knowlege... queue in these large databases of info... That's freaking scary.


no, whats scary is your friggin HYPOCRACY. last week you were supporting Viperjeff in public and private to no end (and was asking the rest of us to do the same), with his collecting of our VINS for his website and his personal use. now, you are saying things like this?

"My issue is the constant data collection going on Worldwide..."

oh dear god. do ya think?! you didnt think there was issue in this thread though did you? here you are all for data collecting.

http://driveviper.com/forums/threads/2345-Viper-Registry

"It's getting harder and harder to keep your private info from becoming public knowlege... queue in these large databases of info... That's freaking scary."

well, DUH. yes, it is "freaking scary", and Viperjeff is building one of those large databases of info that you are asking the rest of us to support is he not?

its pretty clear now that your opinions are based purely off of your little personal agendas and nothing else. i still dont like the collecting of any of my data by anyone including jeff, but hey, thats the world we live in and i will have to accept that. but i will never support anyone trying to do more of it. be sure to check in next week on the subject, and let us all know what your opinion will be then.

[Viper Girl]

Hey Bigs
I don't know what your problem is... but over and over again you refused to listen to the most important part of the registry that Jeff is making...

HE IS NOT STORING VINS!

JEFF, is only storing the build data of how many were made... nothing else... IVR type data... Camero has a white book, Corvette has a black book

So back off... I get that YOU have an agenda... Loud and clear

[ViperJeff]

Wait.... What? :newbie:

[VYPR BYT]

You have no right to privacy while in public. They can track my polish a$$ all over. Doesn't bother me one bit.


exactly what i was thinking. i got nothing to hide, and besides that, when did license plates on cars in public become private anyway? if you dont like it, put your car in the garage and stay home.

LOL
I always laugh when I see videos/pics with the plates blurred. I always thought "...doesn't that defeat the purpose of a license plate?"

I was tempted a couple years ago to put a translucent film over my plates and when a cop pulled me over I would say "It's for my privacy."
My wife talked me out of it.

[ViperJeff]

I decided to take some time and consider the things that are being discussed here and how it applies to my work. I understand the conversation and I respect the opinions that have been expressed. I've decided not to defend what I'm doing, simply because that insinuates I'm doing something wrong.

As I continue to work on my project and document Vipers I will keep in mind the pros and cons I've seen discussed here. I'm certain that there are discussions in areas within the VOA with limited access covering a wide range of issues. Maybe in one of those area's this might also be discussed, where both the pros and cons are measured. If so, maybe the details of what I learn can be shared with confidence.

To clarify a few items.

1. Yes I store VIN's (all items documented have to tie to a VIN, no guessing)
2. VIN's are not included in published lists.
(Note: I considered using the last 3 or 4 digits of a VIN in a list to help with various special edition Vipers and decided not to)
3. I have helped a few of your Members with there own Registries which included the VIN (don't lose those lists boys for what seems to be a good reason at this point).


What I'm not storing
1. Personal Information like address's and License Plates (if someone Registers and wants to share a City, State, Country, that is there call)

I will leave you to your discussions and when/if you are ready for me to continue here, just let me know
Have a Better Day
Jeff

[Alex Mills]

You have no right to privacy while in public. They can track my polish a$$ all over. Doesn't bother me one bit.

Agreed. I don't consider a license plate personal information. It's plastered on my car.