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"the only reason an officer is able to even search for a suspect at a protest is because ALPRs collected data on every single person who attended the protest."

"the only reason an officer is able to even search for a suspect at a protest is because ALPRs collected data on every single person who attended the protest." No. This is simply not accurate. They collected data on every single car that attended, but there easily could be more people at the protest that rode in the same car, lyft/uber, took a bus, walked, or any other methods of getting there without a car.

tptacek 1y ago
This is downvoted (it probably won't be by the time you read it and I shouldn't be commenting on voting) but it's true. I think the underlying issue EFF is writing about here is directionally real, but I also think it's useful to know the ground truth about these things.
anigbrowl 1y ago
Fair, but let's be realistic about the fact that it's also easy for cops to get cellphone tower and location data if they feel like doing correlations. If they tailor their request to the date and area around a protest this would be sufficiently 'narrowly tailored' for many judges to just give them a warrant.
- tptacek 1y ago
  This argument very nearly kept Flock cameras alive in my muni, with the logic being that ALPRs weren't doing anything phones weren't already doing vis a vis privacy.
- y0eswddl 1y ago
  The process for getting access to cell phone data is much more difficult than the process of logging into a flock system
  - anigbrowl 1y ago
    Hence my mention of the need to tailor their request. Obviously they would need to assert some sort of criminal activity connected with the protest to get a warrant, but it's not as if cops are unfamiliar with amplifying or even provoking such, and exaggerating the level of danger in their warrant application. This might seem like a cynical take, but you can see stories almost weekly of border patrol officials admitting to lying about claims of criminality; here are two recent examples: https://abcnews.go.com/US/border-patrol-commander-admitted-lied-tear-gas-incident/story?id=127283392 https://abcnews.go.com/US/border-patrol-commander-admitted-l... https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5616287-charges-dropped-border-patrol-shooting/ https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5616287-charges-dro...

tptacek 1y ago

This is downvoted (it probably won't be by the time you read it and I shouldn't be commenting on voting) but it's true. I think the underlying issue EFF is writing about here is directionally real, but I also think it's useful to know the ground truth about these things.

anigbrowl 1y ago

Fair, but let's be realistic about the fact that it's also easy for cops to get cellphone tower and location data if they feel like doing correlations. If they tailor their request to the date and area around a protest this would be sufficiently 'narrowly tailored' for many judges to just give them a warrant.

tptacek 1y ago
This argument very nearly kept Flock cameras alive in my muni, with the logic being that ALPRs weren't doing anything phones weren't already doing vis a vis privacy.
y0eswddl 1y ago
The process for getting access to cell phone data is much more difficult than the process of logging into a flock system
- anigbrowl 1y ago
  Hence my mention of the need to tailor their request. Obviously they would need to assert some sort of criminal activity connected with the protest to get a warrant, but it's not as if cops are unfamiliar with amplifying or even provoking such, and exaggerating the level of danger in their warrant application. This might seem like a cynical take, but you can see stories almost weekly of border patrol officials admitting to lying about claims of criminality; here are two recent examples: https://abcnews.go.com/US/border-patrol-commander-admitted-lied-tear-gas-incident/story?id=127283392 https://abcnews.go.com/US/border-patrol-commander-admitted-l... https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5616287-charges-dropped-border-patrol-shooting/ https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5616287-charges-dro...