ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized in January 2018. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians.
ICE agents would be able to query that database in two ways. A historical search would turn up every place a given license plate has been spotted in the last five years, a detailed record of the target’s movements. That data could be used to find a given subject’s residence or even identify associates if a given car is regularly spotted in a specific parking lot.
ICE agents can also receive instantaneous email alerts whenever a new record of a particular plate is found - a system known internally as a "hot list."
Automatic license plate recognition systems (ALPRS) are not new. The ACLU expressed privacy concerns about ALPRS use in 2012. The EFF reported in May 2013 that Automated License Plate Readers Threaten Our Privacy.
Companies such as Veil produce Anti-Tracking ANPR/ALPR Countermeasures, but the overall effectiveness of these countermeasures is less than perfect.
The EFF has published a Guide to Law Enforcement Spying Technology where they discuss APLRS and similar technology used by law enforcement.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.