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I am all for privacy, but...it is not a reasonable expectation of privacy that your car and/or license plate will not be photographed while on the road (at leas

I am all for privacy, but...it is not a reasonable expectation of privacy that your car and/or license plate will not be photographed while on the road (at least according to US law). There is an entire body of law regarding reasonable expectation of privacy vis-a-vis 4th Amendment search and seizure. If nothing else, even if one does not personally agree with the jurisprudence, then they might find it informative to know what the police may or may not search/seize without a warrant, probable cause and/or reasonable suspicion.

donutdan4114 12y ago
Privacy isn't a one-size-fits-all type of thing. I think there is an inherit difference between reading license plates that are publicly visible on the roadway versus tracking license plates over time and storing that data for a long enough period that someone can deduce even more personal information from it. If you were to say "is it okay to read license plates and check a stolen vehicle registry" I don't think many people would complain. But if you were to ask, "Is it okay that i know where you live and work and hang out on a regular basis by just reading your license plate," that's a different story. If they just erased the data after a few days that would take care of most privacy concerns that people have.
a3n 12y ago
It's a different thing entirely when the government has data, particularly when that data traces your life. The guy standing on the corner waving a "We buy gold" sign seeing my car/plate is unlikely to be able to do anything with that data. But the government recording my whereabouts can draw me into any sort of investigation they like, based on correlated but not necessarily cause-related data. It's very different. At the least, the government is our servant, not our adversary, and we're supposed to be able to limit and direct what they do. Just because the can do something does not automatically give them the right, particularly if we've told them they can't. Unfortunately they do see themselves as our adversary, and so the question of whether we actually have given them the right to do something is often arguable.
fragmede 12y ago
> (at least according to US law). Have a citation? There's a difference between a human police officer who is, well, human, and a robot who has eyes in the back of their head, and remembers every single license plate they've ever seen in the past two years. The Supreme court agreed, in United States v. Jones, that technology has changed things, and GPS trackers or license plate readers are fundamentally different than having a law enforcement officer do it the 'old fashioned way', especially because data storage is so cheap these days. New Hampshire has completely banned automated license plate readers, and Maine, New Jersy and Virginia have already put limits on the license plate readers.

donutdan4114 12y ago

Privacy isn't a one-size-fits-all type of thing. I think there is an inherit difference between reading license plates that are publicly visible on the roadway versus tracking license plates over time and storing that data for a long enough period that someone can deduce even more personal information from it. If you were to say "is it okay to read license plates and check a stolen vehicle registry" I don't think many people would complain. But if you were to ask, "Is it okay that i know where you live and work and hang out on a regular basis by just reading your license plate," that's a different story. If they just erased the data after a few days that would take care of most privacy concerns that people have.

a3n 12y ago

It's a different thing entirely when the government has data, particularly when that data traces your life. The guy standing on the corner waving a "We buy gold" sign seeing my car/plate is unlikely to be able to do anything with that data. But the government recording my whereabouts can draw me into any sort of investigation they like, based on correlated but not necessarily cause-related data. It's very different. At the least, the government is our servant, not our adversary, and we're supposed to be able to limit and direct what they do. Just because the can do something does not automatically give them the right, particularly if we've told them they can't. Unfortunately they do see themselves as our adversary, and so the question of whether we actually have given them the right to do something is often arguable.

fragmede 12y ago

> (at least according to US law). Have a citation? There's a difference between a human police officer who is, well, human, and a robot who has eyes in the back of their head, and remembers every single license plate they've ever seen in the past two years. The Supreme court agreed, in United States v. Jones, that technology has changed things, and GPS trackers or license plate readers are fundamentally different than having a law enforcement officer do it the 'old fashioned way', especially because data storage is so cheap these days. New Hampshire has completely banned automated license plate readers, and Maine, New Jersy and Virginia have already put limits on the license plate readers.