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Repo Men Scan Billions of License Plates -- For the Government (washingtonpost.com)
The Washington Post notes the billions of license plate scans coming from modern repo men "able to use big data to find targets" -- including one who drives "a beat-up Ford Crown Victoria sedan."
It had four small cameras mounted on the trunk and a laptop bolted to the dash. The high-speed cameras captured every passing license plate. The computer contained a growing list of hundreds of thousands of vehicles with seriously late loans. The system could spot a repossession in an instant. Even better, it could keep tabs on a car long before the loan went bad... Repo agents are the unpopular foot soldiers in the nation's $1.2 trillion auto loan market... they are the closest most people come to a faceless, sophisticated financial system that can upend their lives...
Derek Lewis works for Relentless Recovery, the largest repo company in Ohio and its busiest collector of license plate scans. Last year, the company repossessed more than 25,500 vehicles -- including tractor trailers and riding lawn mowers. Business has more than doubled since 2014, the company said. Even with the rising deployment of remote engine cutoffs and GPS locators in cars, repo agencies remain dominant. Relentless scanned 28 million license plates last year, a demonstration of its recent, heavy push into technology. It now has more than 40 camera-equipped vehicles, mostly spotter cars. Agents are finding repos they never would have a few years ago. The company's goal is to capture every plate in Ohio and use that information to reveal patterns... "It's kind of scary, but it's amazing," said Alana Ferrante, chief executive of Relentless.
Repo agents are responsible for the majority of the billions of license plate scans produced nationwide. But they don't control the information. Most of that data is owned by Digital Recognition Network (DRN), a Fort Worth company that is the largest provider of license-plate-recognition systems. And DRN sells the information to insurance companies, private investigators -- even other repo agents. DRN is a sister company to Vigilant Solutions, which provides the plate scans to law enforcement, including police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Both companies declined to respond to questions about their operations... For repo companies, one worry is whether they are producing information that others are monetizing.
Derek Lewis works for Relentless Recovery, the largest repo company in Ohio and its busiest collector of license plate scans. Last year, the company repossessed more than 25,500 vehicles -- including tractor trailers and riding lawn mowers. Business has more than doubled since 2014, the company said. Even with the rising deployment of remote engine cutoffs and GPS locators in cars, repo agencies remain dominant. Relentless scanned 28 million license plates last year, a demonstration of its recent, heavy push into technology. It now has more than 40 camera-equipped vehicles, mostly spotter cars. Agents are finding repos they never would have a few years ago. The company's goal is to capture every plate in Ohio and use that information to reveal patterns... "It's kind of scary, but it's amazing," said Alana Ferrante, chief executive of Relentless.
Repo agents are responsible for the majority of the billions of license plate scans produced nationwide. But they don't control the information. Most of that data is owned by Digital Recognition Network (DRN), a Fort Worth company that is the largest provider of license-plate-recognition systems. And DRN sells the information to insurance companies, private investigators -- even other repo agents. DRN is a sister company to Vigilant Solutions, which provides the plate scans to law enforcement, including police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Both companies declined to respond to questions about their operations... For repo companies, one worry is whether they are producing information that others are monetizing.
Note that they scan and capture every plate they see, regardless of its status. Entered into the database is time, location and picture of the plate.
You are on a _public_ road. You give up rights in order to used a shared road. Don't like it, walk or bike it. Same reason people have to get driver's licenses and maintain a semblance of sobreity. Your actions with a motorized vehicle affect others, so that info should be public.
"Implied Consent" is the phrase here.
Some quotes from the article:
The company's goal is to capture every plate in Ohio and use that information to reveal patterns. A plate shot outside an apartment at 5 a.m. tells you that's probably where the driver spends the night, no matter their listed home address. So when a repo order comes in for a car, the agent already knows where to look.
Repo agents are responsible for the majority of the billions of license plate scans produced nationwide. But they don't control the information. Most of that data is owned by Digital Recognition Network (DRN), a Fort Worth company that is the largest provider of license-plate-recognition systems. And DRN sells the information to insurance companies, private investigators - even other repo agents. DRN is a sister company to Vigilant Solutions, which provides the plate scans to law enforcement, including police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Which would indicate every plate scanned ends up in a database. Regardless whether it's on some "wanted" list. And that data is passed on, used for purposes other than what it was gathered for.
That seems like an enormous invasion of privacy. How it's even possible that is legal, is beyond me. In the European Union such shit wouldn't fly (I think). Well perhaps except in police state the UK that is...
Not to mention there's no need for a plate scan to ever leave the scanning vehicle. Not even for a lookup in a "wanted" list: such lists are relatively small, a copy could easily be kept onboard the scanning vehicle, a scanned plate compared against, no match? Forget that plate immediately, only record/upload hits.
Shooting pics in public with -perhaps- some recognisable faces in it, is one thing. But keeping tabs on everyone that passes by is an enormous invasion of privacy - public place or not. That should be illegal unless there's a very pressing need for it. And even then only done with the recording aspect kept to the minimum necessary.
... this data, there's nothing from stopping them from buying it from private companies that do their dirty work for them.
Spirit of the law, schmirit of the law.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Note that they scan and capture every plate they see, regardless of its status.
3. Don't live in a neighborhood with a lot of deadbeats.
Notice that you can accomplish 1, 2 & 3 just by choosing not to be poor.
You know that they are only doing high risk neighbourhoods at the moment. The more their industry grows, the more they will cover. Eventually every inch of road will be monitored by either LeO scanning for crims, repo guys like this, or bail bondsmen.
Between the various private agents operating public functions, we will soon be in the era of total pervasive surveillance.
The I'd rather have the repo man with my data than Uber
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
yep, so keeping a private life is not easy to do,
that's why I am asking [about protection from ALPR privacy invasion]
Buy an ALPR unit yourself and situate it covertly by the parking lot entrance/ramp for your city's/State's Capitol/City Administration building(s) and/or Federal buildings, record their plates and build a database, and publish it online.
People, especially people in power, don't typically care about invasions of privacy by big data until it's *their* privacy being compromised.
Make it personal for those in power if you want something done about it.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
In parts of California, they wanted to outfit garbage trucks with license plate readers as well: https://www.mercurynews.com/20...
Even more pervasive, since garbage trucks drive by each and every residential address, every week.
You are welcome to try. You should however be aware that the rules that apply to the populace do not necessarily apply to the Ruling Elite, and that you might incur life-altering consequeces for acting... Unwisely. Just saying. Take it as friendly advice. Those are difficult times, the economy being what it is, people should be mindful of their places.
Although that may be true, what price would you pay and what risks would you be willing to take to fight for the freedom and personal privacy of yourself and everyone else including those you care most for? Make no mistake, this is the start of monitoring, tracking, storing, and analyzing the movements of every vehicle and person which is Big Brother writ far larger, and ends up at a place far more dangerous than anything in "1984".
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.