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Government Spy Truck Is Disguised As A Google Street View Car (vice.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Matt Blaze, a University of Pennsylvania computer and information science professor, discovered a SUV "tucked away in the shadows of the Philadelphia Convention Center's tunnel" that was labeled as a Google Maps Street View car. It had two high-powered license plate reader cameras mounted on top, meaning it had to belong to a government agency. The Philadelphia Police Department had admitted it owns the truck after the report from Motherboard was published. "Unless the Philadelphia Fire Department of Streets Department are using automated license plate recognition (ALPR), this strongly suggests the city's police department is trawling city streets under the auspices of Google while snapping thousands of license plate images per minute," says Motherboard. ALPR can photograph thousands of license plate images per minute and track and store a person's travel habits without a warrant. Google spokesperson Susan Cadrecha commented on the report, "We can confirm this is not a Google Maps car, and that we are currently looking into the matter." The Philadelphia Police Department since responded to the report: "We have been informed that this unmarked vehicle belongs to the police department; however, the placement of any particular decal on the vehicle was not approved through any chain of command. With that being said, once this was brought to our attention, it was ordered that the decals be removed immediately."

5 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Attitudes and behavior like this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    from law enforcement are why the tree of liberty needs refreshing from time to time..

  2. Re:What's the difference? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why are you assuming they are wrong or paranoid? If I remember correctly, they disguised somebody as a vaccine worker or a doctor trying to administer vaccinations to find Osama bin Laden. So once it was discovered by the local populace that they did this, people who were actually trying to help were threatened, but I not sure if any were killed. So I don't think they're being paranoid at all.

  3. Re:What's the difference? by royallthefourth · · Score: 5, Informative

    The CIA's bogus vaccine incident is well documented

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07...

  4. Re:What's the difference? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

    set back the effort to eliminae smallpox worldwide.

    Minor quibble: Smallpox was eliminated in the 1970s. The CIA operatives were disguised as polio vaccine workers.

    Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Several dozen polio vaccine workers were killed in the backlash against the CIA ruse. The CIA has admitted that impersonating vaccine workers was a mistake, and said that they will not do it again.

    The movie "Zero Dark Thirty" showed CIA operatives pretending to be vaccine workers, but did not mention the backlash.

  5. Re:What's the difference? by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe take the tinfoil hat off before posting next time...

    Sorry, but this event is a fact. You may not like facts, but they are what they are.

    Yes, it IS a fact that the CIA sent agents (read: spies) to foreign countries who had official "covers" as health and vaccine doctors.

    When they were unmasked, many nations responded by flat-out refusing entry to real anti-smallpox vaccine doctors, and that DID set the effort to control smallpox back all over the world.

    This isn't some kooky conspiracy theory, this is a fact and the government has admitted it.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...