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. mmooss · 1791087352 · focus · HN ↗

      Do you mean, capture the image only after a warrant is issued?

      That doesn't seem realistic: Almost all the time, we only know about a crime after it happens - when it's too late to obtain a warrant. We get the license plate from the video of the crime.

      So I would capture the images, minimize and encrypt it at the point of capture (before storage or transmission), and maybe even setup some PKI where only judges can issue keys to decrypt, if practical.

      1. jasomill · 1791144167 · focus · HN ↗

         This sounds suspiciously like the NSA’s justification for what would otherwise be illegal domestic surveillance.

         The problem with this is that it depends on the trustworthiness of those enforcing the restrictions, both now and in the future.

         But if we trusted the watchers to watch themselves, we wouldn’t need the restrictions in the first place.

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