Shopping malls, colleges & parking companies are using license plate readers to spy on you

DHS's failed national license plate database is going strong. While DHS may have been slowed down by instituting a national license plate database, they're using traffic cameras,  colleges, shopping malls & parking lots to compile a national database.

DHS bypassed privacy office to spy on motorists license plates.

At present that database has 2.3 billion permanent records, including hundreds of thousands gathered locally. On average, the whereabouts of every vehicle in the United States — yours, mine, your mother's — appears in that database nine times.

Todd Hodnett, founder of the company that aggregates and sells that data, defends the activity as lawful and harmless. "We're just photographing things that are publicly visible," he said.

Mass collection of license-plate images is just one of many ways in which business and government entities legally compile data on individuals. The difference in this case is they do it not by sifting through social-media posts or mining financial records, but by driving down the street.

Many private-sector camera operators, like parking companies, say they do not know the names and addresses behind the plates they scan. Others, like universities, say they discard the records almost immediately.

It's all lies, private security guards are being trained by DHS, click here & here to read more.

No matter how benign the intentions of camera system operators, they say, their data may prove irresistible to DHS or private parties bent on snooping.

"We think people are entitled to wander around this grand country without being concerned about being tracked," said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "What they're doing ... is making it possible for someone to come back and check."

From the Kansas City Star:

“In front of your home or at your place of worship, while you drive to work or park outside your paramour’s place. And once your plates have been photographed, no current federal, Missouri or Kansas regulations limit how long the information can be kept. In most cases, you are prevented from seeing what information law enforcement may have gathered on your plates. 

“You know, I think the average driver is probably aware that there are license plate readers out there,” said Allie Bohm, an advocacy and policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union in New York. 

“But I think people would be surprised by license plate reader ubiquity, particularly in small towns, and how much data on completely innocent people is being stored and how long that data is being stored in many cases.”

Only five states have adopted laws regulating or banning private use of license-plate readers, also known as LPRs, with legislative bodies in as many more states having considered such measures.

The Democrat and Chronicle reported in July, New York police have accumulated more than 3.8 million records, to be stored for as long as five years. Statewide, the number of archived law-enforcement license plate records numbers in the tens of millions.

Destiny USA mall in Syracuse tested a more unusual technique this summer. The owners reportedly had a security vehicle equipped with a license-plate reader cruise the parking lot to research where shoppers lived.

Crowded mall parking lots have been favored venues for plate readers, which are deployed for market studies, security purposes or to guide shoppers who have forgotten where they left their car.

Security vehicles at Destiny mall make their rounds with a license-plate reader attached to its trunk.

Plate numbers gathered by the roving camera were given to a consultant that used motor-vehicle data to determine the ZIP code in which shoppers lived, according to a story in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The market study at Destiny USA, owned by Pyramid Cos., was billed as a trial. Two mall spokeswomen did not return calls and emails seeking comment, and it is not known whether the practice continues.

The New York Thruway Authority, like the Mass Turnpike Autrhority will begin to make use of this same motor-vehicle data when the first portion of the new Hudson River bridge at Tappan Zee opens in 2016.

Motorists will be able to cross the toll bridge without slowing to make payments, passing under high-speed E-ZPass scanners and license-plate cameras. The cameras will capture the plates of motorists who do not have an E-ZPass, and they'll be billed by mail.

The owner of Rochester, NY's largest malls, Wilmorite Inc., is aware of the trend but has so far opted out.

"We have been approached by those companies. From our perspective … there's still some privacy issues. People feel you're using information they want to keep private," said Janice Sherman, Wilmorite's marketing director. "At this point we're not going to jump in something like that. We want to see how it pans out."

Advanced Recovery, one of the auto-repo companies that scoops up license-plate records of passing motorists, is on Seneca Avenue in northeast Rochester, co-located with a towing company and a private investigative firm. It also has an office in Syracuse, NY.

The firm's website makes no bones about the company's use of license-plate readers, and states it has accumulated more than 500,000 LPR records.

But they won't talk about it publicly. "We're bound by contract not to speak about it," said a man who answered the company's Rochester telephone. He said the contract also forbade him from providing his name.

Hodnett, whose Digital Recognition Network counts Advanced Recovery among its 400-plus "camera affiliates," isn't similarly constrained.

In a recent interview, Hodnett said he launched the service in 2007 to help repo companies find cars they'd been hired to repossess. If the vehicle wasn't at the last known address provided by the lender, the repo company could examine archived plate records to see where it might be.

A year later, the idea arose of repurposing all the records being collected. "We thought we could turn around and offer this for law-enforcement purposes," he said. "Why not provide free access to law enforcement and maybe save some lives because of it?"

In partnership with Vigilant Solutions, a California hardware-maker that provided cameras for DRN's system and now is DRN's corporate parent, Hodnett launched the National Vehicle Location Service. The service incorporates the private-sector data collected by DRN with other plate records gathered by police and stored on Vigilant computer servers. Law enforcement agencies have limited free access to the database. Full access is available for a fee.

According to information from the company, more than 20,000 law enforcement officers have used the system. Vigilant credits the service with helping solve numerous crimes.

Vigilant Solutions sells data to corporate and commercial customers that are allowed access to motor-vehicle records under federal law.

Customers include insurance companies and at least one data broker. Hodnett said DRN has a deal with TransUnion's TLO service, which makes a range of data available online to parties that meet the federal access standard.

"We do not make it available to any individuals," Hodnett said. He also noted that DRN's database "does not contain any personally identifiable information whatsoever."

Why would anyone believe them? Any number of companies and agencies have the ability to match a plate number to a name, and anyone with the money and a plausible reason can hire a private investigator to surf through DRN's 2.3 billion records via a service like TLO.

Tien of EFF, a leading digital privacy group, said advocates have been trying without success to get a clear picture of who is getting access to DRN's data. But they know state and federal regulations leave room for a wide range of clients.

"As a general matter, the limit is what they're currently willing and able to do to monetize the data," he said.

Colleges are spying on your license plates:

Police agencies for universities and colleges across the country are using LPR's to spy on you.

A 2010 study by George Mason University found:

"License plate readers can continuously scan hundreds of plates in minutes without the officer paying attention to vehicles passing by or taking up radio airtime that might be used for more pressing communications. Because of these efficiencies, LPR may contribute not only to reduced discrimination in traffic stops, but also to reduced distractions and accidents while driving," the study said.

“It never stops,” said Capt. Kevin Reardon, who runs Arlington County’s plate reader program. “It just gobbles up tag information. One of the big questions is, what do we do with the information?”

•  Cal State University, Fullerton purchased one MPH-900 automatic license plate reader in August 2008 and collected enough fines by January 2009 to cover the nearly $20,000 cost of the system.

•  Cal State University, Northridge conducted a 2-hour demonstration before purchasing two MPH-900 systems. During the demo, the MPH-900 identified five chronic parking violators. Boots were placed on the vehicles resulting in the collection of over $3,000.

•  Arizona State University conducted a ninety-minute demonstration before purchasing two MPH-900 systems. During the demo, the MPH-900 identified eighty-two chronic parking violators. Had ASU had a sufficient number of boots to place on the vehicles, they would have collected over $10,000.

Click here to read more.

At Monroe Community College in NY, employees, students and frequent visitors register their plate numbers with the college. Employees gain access to gated lots when cameras match their plate with a number in the college database.

The system replaces the traditional parking stickers in side or rear windows.

Campus security patrols student and visitor lots with license plate cameras, making sure everyone's parked in the right place. If they're not, tickets follow. The number of tickets is down, spokeswoman Cynthia Cooper said, perhaps because students no longer misplace their window stickers.

The system was implemented in June 2013 and has won plaudits for both MCC and its vendor, Genetec, she said.

Plate scan records are discarded after 30 days, she said.

Rochester Institute of Technology implemented a similar system in August and has had no complaints, spokeswoman Ellen Rosen said. RIT claims to keep LPR records for only seven days.

The University of Rochester will begin use of LPRs for parking control early next year, mostly on the River Campus, spokeswoman Sara Miller said.

Mapco Auto Parks, which operates parking at Rochester's airport, is installing a camera system that will provide a double-check on motorists' honesty.

Mapco also has been experimenting with an LPR system at the Civic Center Garage, though Goldstein said no decision has been made about permanent use. Neither system will tap into driver's personal data.

"It's not about gathering anybody's information," Goldstein said. "We're not snooping on people. Honestly, we don't care."

That's total B.S. and DHS/Police don't want the public to know anything about their spying on You! See also: Obama wants a spying campus at St. Elizabeth's hospital.

http://www.dailynewsen.com/breaking/license-plate-data-is-big-business-h2813852.html

http://dailytrojan.com/2013/09/15/on-campus-cameras-scan-and-report-license-plates/