Thread

1. JKCalhoun · 1791067032 · focus · HN ↗

   License plate reader?

   So the device should require very specific license plates to scan for—not the current dragnet. The software should only "ping" when there is a confident match with said license plate(s)—and merely log which license plate, time stamp a single photo, and note the confidence level of it being a match.

   The frame buffer should be the only place (a frame of) video is ever stored at all (excepting the high-confidence match indicated above).

   The only issue remaining would be whether we trust the device/software to have complied (and not have a backdoor) and of course there needs to be a legal warrant for every license plate uploaded (and it should expire fairly frequently, likely requiring a new warrant to continue canning for the plate).

   1. StanislavPetrov · 1791067685 · focus · HN ↗

      Describing these mass surveillance devices as "license plate readers" is a deliberate tactic to deceive people about their actual use and capability. Flock cameras record everything, not just license plates. They record the faces and bodies of the driver and the passengers that are visible through the windows. They record and analyze all the little dings, bumper stickers and other unique elements of a vehicle above and beyond license plates. They are regularly deployed and used in areas like footpaths where there is no vehicle traffic at all.

      1. TimeBearingDown · 1791068121 · focus · HN ↗

         Just to add, some can identify Bluetooth signals, and I wouldn’t be surprised if identification via direct TPMS (tire pressure) is added eventually.

         1. WaitWaitWha · 1791070657 · focus · HN ↗

            I have never seen TPMS ID trackers as they change relatively frequently and there are passive ones too; not to say they do not exists. Built-in BT ID of a vehicle or mobile phone rarely does.

            Bluetooth and toll transponders (e.g, EZ-Pass, FastTrak) have been tracking things for decades.

            First hand experience in operational rooms where both Bluetooth and the transponders are used for "traffic management" in Delaware and Washington DC. The readers are not at toll gates (only). they are sprinkled throughout highways and "high interest" areas. And, yes individual vehicles can be identified throughout their movements that is the very purpose of tracking so they can see the speed and flow of individual vehicles "to adjust intersection lights".

            1. unsnap_biceps · 1791072018 · focus · HN ↗

               > they change relatively frequently

               Aren't they static for the life of the sensor which is ~10 years?

               1. WaitWaitWha · 1791078232 · focus · HN ↗

                  Yes, you are likely right.

                  I do not know that much about TPMS changing, only anecdotal. Every time a rim is messed up or the device fails the TPMS would change.

                  They might have been wrong when they told me why they "just" track car BT (and EZPass).

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