Our ability to collect, store and retrieve data has increased at an alarming rate in the last effort to prevent terrorism. And now, an additional debate about privacy appeared as the Department of Homeland Security has advocated a national license plate database which will integrate the license plate image data to support the application of the law.
Is collection affect the rights to privacy? And whether the data available to private companies, especially those that help in collecting these datadecade through our ability to digitize information.
The debate on privacy have emerged as the National Security Agency admitted to collecting the communication of information on all citizens?
for the purpose of recognition of license plate
database license plates that the Department of Homeland Security wants to create would most information gathered by application the law, and will include information from private companies. This type of information is data "localization".
Currently, thousands of cameras across the country to take pictures of license plates. With the captured image is the time and the location of each image. This information is transmitted to the massive databases that can be accessed by police to track the whereabouts of stolen cars and fugitives possible.
How data is invasive
Not only is the law of this data collection application. Private companies are also trying to build massive databases of information and license plate in most cases, more than law enforcement. These private companies can legally sell access to their data to anyone willing to pay. This includes private investigators, lenders, pension and other workers. Defenders of privacy and legislators find this practice a conflict of interest and extremely invasive.
This type of data can be used to build a detailed picture of a person's life, including who they associate, and where they go, whether it's a gay bar or the church, doctor's office, or the home of a lover. It can also be used to create the list for political activists who can then be sold to those who might benefit from such private information.
The private connection
A survey in 2012 revealed that over 70 percent of the police force of the country is equipped with reading plate scanners.
However, in the collection of license plate data private world is growing rapidly. Vigilant, a private data collection agency, is preferred by many in law enforcement, because it has more than 2 billion scans in a database maintained by its subsidiary Digital Recognition Network. They collect their data through fleets of vehicles equipped with cameras that cross the nation's roads.
Vigilant claims to have over 3500 customers to law enforcement that access their data. And business is booming for them because they bring about $ 500 million annually.
Other private companies produce huge amounts of license plate data, including MVTrac and TLO (recently acquired by TransUnion) who claims to have a "massive database of 1 billion observations vehicles "with" up to 50 million new cases, "every month.
claims that Vigilant monitoring where cars move are not invasive. They note that the data collected by pension workers are accessible by police, but not the reverse. They also argue that the plate numbers can not be adapted to the owners because federal laws prohibit them get this information from the Department of Motor Vehicles. But the flaw with this argument is that the law allows such an exception multiple-exceptions being a licensed private investigators.
When attempts are made to limit data collection by these companies, they successfully defended their rights using the first amendment and other legal rankings.
Rein attempts in practice
California State Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) advocates legislation to impose limits on this new industry. He believes that what is happening is crossing a line where privacy is concerned.
Senator Hill acknowledges that the license plate data can be useful for law enforcement, but that restrictions should be implemented on the extent and availability of this information will be . He fears that this kind of partnership between the police and for nonprofits data collection will result in police work for repo companies and insurance companies, instead of the reverse.
The legislation Senator Hill proposed would prevent public bodies to share their data with private companies on the outside, and to ban license plate scanners to enter private property unless that they have the consent of the owners. It would also facilitate the filing of privacy lawsuits against these data collectors, which will slow their rapid capture of private data.
Senator Hill has shown the power of these data collection agencies have become by hiring a private detective to follow his wife. Instead of tailing her movements by car, the detective agency has paid for access to their license plate data. The program was able to locate the wife of Senator Hill in a gym in Sacramento more than 100 miles.
The challenges in preventing the ongoing collection of data
The law of Senator Hill has his work cut out for her. Back in 2012, a similar bill was proposed in California and was successfully hit by intense lobbying officials of the law enforcement and private data collection agencies.
In the state of Utah, the legislature tried to restrict the commercial collection of the license plate data but declined when they were pursued by watchful Solutions, located in Livermore, California. For now, all attempts to restrict or prohibit the invasion of privacy have been thwarted by the right to free speech since taking photographs of public falls under its protection.
This debate will continue to rage as the forces of free speech come into conflict with the protection of privacy. As with other technological advances, laws need to be reviewed and implemented new policies to ensure that all rights are protected.
Currently, the scales have tipped in favor of the protection of aspects of freedom of expression. But should this ability to collect and sort data growth and impact on the lives of most Americans, it is difficult to say where the matter will finally rest, if it does at all.
Image via Flickr by West Midlands Police
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