If you believe in the concept of keeping your personal data private (well, as much as anyone living in the modern world can these days), you may already have some feelings about Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR), specifically the Flock Camera Network.
The police had to keep an eye on your speed and issue tickets on the spot. But surveillance technology can clearly turn into revenue-generating technology with incredible speed, and it’s not just me or some other alleged Chicken Little screaming about how the sky is falling to anyone who can hear.
Why? Because it’s already happening, there’s no need to be hyperbolic or fanciful about it.
Renowned privacy advocacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation A reported incident in the state of Georgia is mentioned very briefly. As for “License Plate Reader Mission Creep”, and they’re not wrong. In case you’re unaware of it, the news story the EFF was commenting on involved a motorcyclist who was apparently seen by a swarm camera holding a cell phone in his left hand.
Shortly after the fact, the Georgia State Patrol issued that motorcyclist a ticket based on the Flock camera’s recording of the incident, even though a direct quote from the company’s own marketing materials states, “What it is not: Flock ALPR does not do facial recognition, does not store biometrics, cannot be interrogated to locate people, and Not used to enforce traffic violations(emphasis mine)
Is it the opposite day? Is that whole sentence just a list of things that Flock either already exists for, or will eventually be used for as well? If one part of that sentence describes that the flock is not to be used for falling, what does that mean about the reliability or trustworthiness of the other component parts of that sentence?
(And no, of course, this doesn’t mean that I advocate using your phone while you’re driving. But that’s not really the point here, and you know it.)
Do you think the matter stops here? In another interesting piece of reporting, Excellent 404 media analyzed and shared a piece of marketing material From a company called Leonardo, regarding a piece of technology the company calls the ELSAG SignalTrace Intelligence System. To make you feel better about personal data collection and how you are defined by your devices on a daily basis, the subtitle of this document also explains its intended purpose, so I’ll quote it directly here in bold so you can’t miss it even if you’re skimming and not reading.
Identify suspects by their electronic devices
To show you that the above paragraph isn’t some kind of crazy fever dream (trust me, I wish it were), here’s a screenshot. That’s really, really what this system is designed to accomplish, and it doesn’t mince words.
Leonardo ELSAG SignalTrace Intelligence System Brochure Screenshot 1
Photo by: RideApart.com
By the way, the first person to tell me was “Oh, this will only be used on gang members, non-gang-members have no need to worry!” I have received a special invitation to the bridge, I have to sell it to you. But really, there have been plenty of points in recent years where privacy advocates should probably have lost their minds already, so what’s one more to add to the pile?
Now, to reassure you of the benign intentions of this system, the marketing material states that “SignalTrace only captures publicly broadcasted device frequency activity. It does not decrypt or store any content from devices or communications. It acts like a license plate reader by capturing identifiers without access to personal or message data.”
oh, so it is absolutely finefriends! It’s just capturing data from my fitness ring or watch to say I went somewhere, when I just want to keep track of my sleep habits and my steps and see how different types of physical activity affect my physical and mental health, but it keeps that data completely anonymous, except oh wait, it wants to correlate that data with my license plate so that some obscure official organization or other can know where I am at all times!
Great, nothing to see here!
Or, even more nefariously, it wants to use the fact that you, a responsible pet owner, had your beloved furry friend microchipped so that if they ever got loose, you could hopefully locate them and bring them back home.
Do you think I’m joking, or jumping to conclusions? Hate to break it to you, but I’m not doing it. Here’s another screenshot.
Photo by: RideApart.com
How many of these devices do you carry with you and use on a daily basis? My guess is, more than one. This probably varies depending on what time of day it is and where you’re going; Any one of these certainly seems like a substantial violation. If I’m traveling, I usually have a set of earbuds And Over-the-ear noise-canceling headphones with me, in addition to all the other electronic gubbins I can’t live (or do my job) without.
Still, it’s that favorite microchip that really intrigued me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need a license plate camera (of which I’m already not a fan) recording every incident when I take Stinky out for his daily walk. Nor did we have to stop every 10 feet because poor little Stinky ate something he shouldn’t have, and so now both he and I are busy paying the very unfortunate, multi-poo-bag price.
Whose business should that be? Mine, Stinky’s, and probably whoever happens to be around at the time and glances sideways as the poo parade goes down. Not a license plate reader. Not Leonardo’s. Not my local authorities (unless I did something illegal with the dog poop, or maybe Stinky and I are trespassing or something). We should have a reasonable expectation of personal privacy as we live our lives and go about our daily business.
