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Boston Tracks Vehicles, Lies About It, Leaves Data Exposed
An anonymous reader writes: License plate readers have been in the news a lot lately for the invasion of privacy they represent. Boston is the latest city to make mistakes with the technology. Two weeks ago, a reporter realized that the City of Boston had accidentally exposed records for their automated license plate reader system online. Anyone could have downloaded "dozens of sensitive files, including hundreds of thousands of motor vehicle records dating back to 2012." What's worse is that the Boston Police Department claimed in 2013 that it had stopped using license plate readers. A look through the accidentally-public database shows "hundreds of emails" dating from 2013 to the present, indicating that the police were still getting that data with help from the Transportation Department.
If anyone bothered to read the linked article they would see that this is exactly what it happening. Strictly speaking, the police stopped using scanners. But the Boston Transportation Department is still using them and (apparently) contracted with Xerox to manage a database, which the police seem to have access to. I suppose one could argue that use of data collected by scanners still constitutes use of the scanner.
Actually, it is stalking. Seeing someone in a public place is fine. Seeing them occasionally is OK. Making sure you see them every time in many places without their consent is stalking.