Malls In California Are Sending License Plate Information To ICE (theweek.com)

Presto Vivace shares a report from The Week with the caption, "And they wonder why some of us prefer to shop online." From the report: Surveillance systems at more than 46 malls in California are capturing license plate information that is fed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported Tuesday. One company, Irvine Company Retail Properties, operates malls all over the state using a security network called Vigilant Solutions. Vigilant shares data with hundreds of law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, and debt collectors -- including ICE, which signed a contract with the security company earlier this year, reports The Verge. "[Irvine Company] is putting not only immigrants at risk, but invading the privacy of its customers by allowing a third-party to hold onto their data indefinitely," EFF wrote in its report, urging the chain of malls to stop providing information to ICE.

Comments

Re:Invading privacy?

[Moryath]

This. The government is required to have a warrant to track your whereabouts. This is well established through cases such as United States v. Jones 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012) where police tried to surreptitiously attach a GPS tracker to someone's car without a warrant, and Carpenter v. United States 16-402 S.Ct 585 (2017) which established that police require a warrant to obtain cellphone tower records.

Re:Invading privacy?

[HornWumpus]

Every tire sold in the USA for 10 years has had an embedded RFID.

Once they correlate those to your license number, it's over.

But what do you care? You carry a personal spying device in your pocket.

BTW repo men spend all day driving the streets/parking lots and automatically reading and recording every license number they pass.

I'm considering just collecting a large bag of RFIDs and storing them inside a fender liner. That or a spark gap generator hooked to the ignition.

I understand a ring of bright UV LEDs in a license plate frame will prevent most CCD cameras from getting readable data.