ACLU: Digital Dragnet Ensnares Millions of Innocent Drivers

[Hissyspit]

Source: NBC News

ACLU: Digital dragnet ensnares millions of innocent drivers

Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News
13 minutes ago

Drive down many highways, boulevards or small side streets in America, and your movements are being noted by electronic cameras. Eyes in the sky controlled by local police departments snap photos of every passing license plate and store the data, sometimes forever. Even the smallest of agencies now deploys these high-tech voyeuristic machines, creating massive databases where more than 99 percent of the entries represent innocent people.

All, warned the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday, for a one-in-a-million chance that the cameras might aid in the apprehension of a serious criminal.


"Plate readers are the most pervasive system of location tracking that people haven't heard of," said Catherine Crump, a privacy lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. She wrote the ACLU report released Wednesday questioning the way such cameras are being used. "Even though virtually all of us have had our cars logged into these databases, few know this technology exists."

Plate-reading cameras differ from speed cameras, red light cameras, or even parking enforcement cameras, which are designed to catch violators and criminals. Plate readers simply capture every car that goes by in a digital dragnet, then check the plate number against “hit lists” of cars associated with criminal activity.

The ACLU does not object to the use of so-called LPR (License Plate Reader) technologies, Crump said. Checking license plates can be an effective way to spot a stolen car or a fugitive. She objects to the long-term retention of that data, and what she argues is an out-of-whack balancing act between civil liberties and investigative tools.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/aclu-digital-dragnet-ensnares-millions-innocent-drivers-6C10654018

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. ACLU is wrong about one thing in this story

All, warned the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday, for a one-in-a-million chance that the cameras might aid in the apprehension of a serious criminal.

No...that is not the reason.
That is the excuse.
The REASON is another step in the insatiable need to spy on people in this country.
It is about fear and control.

[hobbit709]

2. Exactly!

[BehindTheCurtain76]

21. FEDS

The feds are funding this...thanks Obama, leader of Oceania.

[Laelth]

3. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[niyad]

4. k and r

[midnight]

5. All for the one in a million chance that this might aid in a crime? Why do I not believe the safety

folks on this? Here is why I'm skeptical... Because if safety was as important as being marketed by HLS... We would have free health care. No homelessness, and a job for all who needed one. But we don't so I think it's for another profit scheme.... Much like race to the top, blah blah blah....

[KoKo]

7. It makes money for the Security Industry....and creates jobs. (they would say)

I heard some commentator on Bloomberg Business say that the future for investing is Robotics and Security. That's what American Investors, Hedge Funds, Pension Funds have left to make money. Sad that....I think.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. Follow the money...

This sounds EXACTLY why they're so pervasive --- less to do with security than it has to do with profit, just like those damn full body scanners at the airports.

[midnight]

17. Right.... but so would hemp... So why not grow it liberally and sell it liberally?

Me thinks they just have something else going on....

[90-percent]

12. Also

We would have modern Manhattan Project sized research into cancer, heart disease, lower respiratory disease, stroke and other diseases that kill American's by the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS every year.

The Surveillance State by this reasoning is for an entirely different purpose that is unclear other than speculation that America is currently a Totalitarian Fascist Police State. The infrastructure has certainly been put in place to achieve such an end.

-90% Jimmy

[midnight]

18. Wouldn't that be something.... We certainly have the brains and the money to make huge impacts in

our delivery of healing health care....

[Fantastic Anarchist]

6. I've always had a problem with this surveillance apparatus on city streets and highways.

But that horse left the barn a long time ago.

[Mr.CT]

10. I agree 100%

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[nolabels]

11. Information at naseum does make for safe

It's called intent and goodwill most of which doesn't seem to be on the plus side when it comes to law enforcement

Do not talk to the Police
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017132340

[RoccoR5955]

13. Shooting the cameras with a paint gun

actually keeps us safer.

[Link Speed]

14. Atlanta has a "No Cruising" ordinance

I have been in Atlanta for a couple of weeks and they have signs in parts of downtown that warn that if the cameras catch you driving past twice within an hour, you will receive a citation.

What could possibly go wrong?

[yesphan]

15. Lets not forget that smart phones can be and are tracked.

Tracked in real time. Your location, how fast you moved from one location to the next, etc.

[SoapBox]

16. LOL!

Where are the Hair-On-Fire-NSA types about this??????

crickets

[Hissyspit]

20. ?

[proverbialwisdom]

19. More.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/07/police_using_scanners_to_track_our_every_move_when_we_drive_aclu_says.html#incart_river_default

[Hestia]

22. A law came out here in Ark. that data cannot be captured for more than one month

and we sure as hell can go crusin'.

What is going on with this country?