The license plate reader corporation Vigilant Solutions wants you to know that the big bad ACLU has been saying untrue things about its number one product. The video embedded above, hosted on the company’s website, constructs a straw man to represent civil libertarian arguments about unregulated license plate reader usage, and then clumsily — without a shred of evidence to support its claims — tries to demolish it.
Vigilant Solutions has a major stake in the license plate reader business. It operates a private database containing upwards of one billion records showing the location history of innocent motorists nationwide. Law enforcement both contribute information to and obtain information from this private database. If the technology continues to remain unregulated in most parts of the country, and as the tools proliferate among law enforcement, the government and companies like Vigilant will be able to warrantlessly track our movements with the click of a mouse.
Among the ridiculous claims made in the video above is that ‘no personal information’ is collected by license plate readers. This is the same argument the NSA makes when it says that its phone surveillance program doesn’t collect personal information, simply phone numbers. But our phone and license plate numbers are obviously highly personal, and just one click away from treasure troves of personal data about us telling the government where we live and work, and innumerable other details about our lives.
http://privacysos.org/node/1214
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-license-plate-reader-corporation.html
The reason the guy in the video says this product only collects plates and not personal info, is because we no longer HAVE any personal info.
Comments are being withheld ‘for approval’ on the youtube site. I guess it’s only for complicit and compliant sheep-like commenters who happily and collectively nod their heads to a Police State.
George Orwell had no idea……