> Like the GPS trackers, license plates are devices designed to aid in identifying and locating a vehicle from a distance by technological means. License plate

> Like the GPS trackers, license plates are devices designed to aid in identifying and locating a vehicle from a distance by technological means. License plates originated in the early 1900s, long before color film cameras were a thing, and more than a century before inexpensive, at-scale license plate readers were a thing. License plates were devices designed to aid police officers in identifying a vehicle from up close by requesting a license plate check. It was remarkable in 2002's Bourne Identity when the highly-trained agent remarked that he knew the license plate numbers of every vehicle in the lot, and the implication that he'd recall them if they happened across the same cars again was scary. The fact that it costs almost nothing to outfit every meter reader with a license plate scanner and log the motion of people and cars in a central database is an accident caused by the progress of technology, not a design goal of the license plate. Preventing abuse of technologies as they become possible is a hard problem.