There is a growing privacy concern with the proliferation of automatic license plate readers primarily centering around the creation of massive databases that potentially could be used for surveillance purposes. ALPR devices are being used by both government and private businesses and several states, including Utah, have enacted laws regulating their use.
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I do believe license plate readers should require a federal law to be used. Specifically I would say law enforcement and other government agencies should be required to have a search warrant before using such technology. Tracking a person's driving location and habits constitutes a search of their personal information, and therefore the government needs a warrant. Private companies should be required to obtain a person's consent before using such technology, even if that is only a sign in their location saying it is in use.
ReplyDeleteLindsay...consent may be feasible when ALPR technology is used in a fixed location (e.g. parking lot ) but is not realistic when ALPR is used via a mobile device (e.g. a police car that is equipped with ALPR on patrol looking for a stolen vehicle or a repossession company that is roaming the streets looking for vehicles where the purchaser has failed to make their car payments.
DeleteI think that automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) should fall under regulations from the federal government. I would be concerned about the error rates, privacy and security concerns if ALPRs went into use unregulated. I would be interested to know how long the government keeps non-criminal data and how well protected that data is. Also, I found this white paper that outlined policy issues around ALPRs: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/automatic-license-plate-readers-legal-status-and-policy-recommendations
ReplyDeleteHannah...you raise some legitimate privacy issues regarding data management practices such as how long is the data retained, is it secure, what are the permitted uses, is it shared or sold, etc. Thanks for providing a link to the referenced white paper, which paper is very instructive on numerous policy issues surrounding use of ALPR technology
DeleteI would say that automatic license plate readers are relevant and important enough to be regulated federally. Unless you live in specific cities in which public transit is readily available as well as accessible, most Americans use private vehicles as their main mode of transportation. By scanning each American's license plate and storing that data long term, you are effectively tracking an individual. ALPR's allow police to be able to search your personal information at any time, which effectively forces the individual being searched to assume they are being tracked all of the time.
ReplyDeleteMax...when law enforcement uses ALPR technology, the technology is not building a database of every scanned plate that is thereafter stored long term. Rather the technology is comparing a given license plate to a list of stolen vehicles or vehicles registered to a wanted criminal or suspect. If there is no match, no data is retained for any appreciable period of time. Thus the police are not "able to search your personal information at any time..."
DeleteI would say that requiring a federal law to enable agencies and businesses to use ALPR is futile. This is because license plate information can already be used to find information about someone. No different than social media, or even knowing a person's government name, it is not hard to gather information about someone if you really want to. The only privacy issue I see is potentially knowing about a person's whereabouts, but even then, license plates are plastered across everyone's car, and if someone really wanted to, could identify you by your license plate and track you, federal law or not. Really it is a risk you take when driving your car in a public area, where everyone can see.
ReplyDeleteRyan...your observation that there are many other ways to find out information about individuals is correct. And, license plate numbers are openly and publicly displayed and one cannot have a reasonable expectation of privacy of the plate number under such circumstances. However, there is a concern about (a) the accuracy of ALPR technology and the possibility that the technology may incorrectly identify a car as being stolen or involved in a crime and (b) that private repossession companies are building massive databases of license plate scans and then selling it to law enforcement agencies which allows an agency to circumvent the requirement of a warrant where stay law otherwise would require. We will discuss in class how the Utah legislature has dealt with this last concern.
DeleteI'm leaning no. ALPRs are placed in public areas, and cars are driving outside where anyone can see them. Considering how license plates are very visible on cars, there isn't really any reasonable expectation of privacy there. Though it can feel sketchy for people to be able to see information about where you're traveling at any time, I don't think ALPRs are recording anything private. I do think that ALPRs should be clearly visible, and it'd be nice for databases to be harder to access, but I don't feel like people's privacies are threatened that much.
ReplyDeleteAndrew...good assessment on the issue of no reasonable expectation of privacy in your publicly displayed license plate number. You do raise a legitimate issue about who has access to any license plate databases and permitted uses.
DeleteIf a warrant is required to attach a gps tracker to a car, then I think the same logic should apply to the use of ALPR. While this does little for private individuals utilizing the technology, I would imagine most of the time ALPR cameras would be placed on major roads. If knowing the real time whereabouts is considered unreasonable search when you use a GPS tracker I think that the same would be true using any other method of tracking, such as tailing, a stake out, or ALPR.
ReplyDeleteJake...it has been repeatedly held by the courts that police do not need a warrant to tail or stakeout a suspect. In those circumstances there is a reasonable suspicion that such a person may be engaging in illegal activity. Installing a GPS tracker on any vehicle without a specialized suspicion of illegal activity by its owner would constitute an unreasonable search.
DeleteALPR readers scans every license plate it comes in contact with, not just cars which are involved in illegal activity.
ALPR technology should be used by the government and police. Having a license plate of people does seem to be a violation or privacy, but we already have our license plate registered at the dmv. We also drive around in public and people can see our license plate regardless of where they are on the street. They could be walking on the sidewalk and see your license plate. It will also allow the police or other security to be able to identify getaway cars, or help spot people who witnessed the event and can give more information. Overall even though there might feel like a invasion of privacy what you get in return is a more safe living environment
ReplyDeleteYour safety justification is the precise argument that law enforcement uses to justify deployment of ALPR technology. The privacy issues relate less to the initial scanning of a publicly visible license plate and more to the building and subsequent use of databases of the scans.
DeleteI believe the privacy violations of this technology is enough to warrant federal law. Tracking of a person through their cell phone has been a legally hot debate since the invention of cell phones, however this takes it a step further - instead of permitting the company to release information to the police, it directly subverts the information from the phone. That's directly against your right to not self incriminate, when they steal that information from you. Federal law should be enacted in regards to this topic in order to require a warrant and specific use cases, otherwise it directly violates the rights of all who it collects information from.
ReplyDeleteNate...perhaps I am not correctly understanding your comment, but ALPR technology has nothing to do with cell phones and how does the linking of your license plate number to your identity violate your right not to incriminate yourself?
DeleteSorry, it was a long weekend, I misread it and thought this was about stingrays.
DeleteI’m leaning towards yes for requiring warrants to access the data. One big piece of my decision is the fact that third party companies are the ones obtaining the data, not police agencies themselves. The fact that a third party is collecting it feels like a loophole for getting away with no warrant, because of the third party doctrine, and so requiring a warrant to access that information should be required so that there can’t be an abuse of power by freely accessing it. I understand the use for public safety, but I think that there can be an extra step to protect people against false accusations/arrests and to make the use of this technology more intentional.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation about whether police agencies are able to circumvent any warrant requirement by obtaining the license plate information from private companies. We will discuss how the Utah legislature has addressed that specific issue.
DeleteI would hesitate to say that we need federal regulation. There are good reasons for the government to monitor the movement of vehicles such as enforcing traffic laws or tracking suspected criminals. Because states issue license plates they are probably most able to regulate the use of license plate recognition.
ReplyDeletePolicies regarding the use of ALPR technology may vary from state to state and that militates against a federal law. Utah, for example, has an ALPR law that differs from other states. On the other hand, vehicles are highly mobile and are not limited in their travels to a single state and maybe consistency between states is preferable.
DeleteAlthough I understand the need for federal regulation for trackers, I generally think that ALPR's are more of a middle ground to not-as-necessary in contrast to other, more urgent privacy issues. License plates are public, but it's more about the live time tracking or data collection of locations that worry me, not necessarily about who owns what car and the general information that comes with purchases/ownership. So while I think it's beneficial to have regulations about its use, it's also not a top priority in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that the privacy issues with ALPR technology do not primarily stem from the initial scan of a publicly visible plate, but relate to use of the technology for live tracking and the assembling of massive databases of plate information with accompanying data management and use issues.
DeleteI don't think that the use of ALPR technology should have federal regulation. I think that that the public safety benefits outweigh the privacy risks. Being able to identify a license plate is not on the same level of concern as actively tracking a person using a GPS tracker or their cell phone, and as others have pointed out, any observant person could track someone using their license plate even without the technology.
ReplyDeleteAlex...a pragmatic and defensible position. If ALPR technology is used only for public safety purposes and there are appropriate data management and security measures in place (such as automatic deletion of any data within a reasonable period of time, it is easier to make an argument that the public safety benefits outweigh any nominal privacy invasion.
DeleteI believe that privacy concerns with the use of ALPR are valid, though i do not find them personally concerning to my privacy. I personally believe that license plates are fair for tracking with law enforcement, in the way it can be used to identify missing, stolen and current on-the-run vehicles. It does not have an active gps, so tracking is limited to information obtained by law enforcement reports and records. If the technology would to develop in the future which allowed more tracking/gps capabilities, then I would say that the federal law needs would need to be reevaluated.
ReplyDeleteChloe Hagan
DeleteChloe...you are correct that use of ALPR technology presently is not very effective for real-time tracking, particularly when compared to other tracking tools such as GPS trackers or cell phone location monitoring.
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