"Last month, the governor of Massachusettsapproved half a million dollars in grants for 27 police departments to acquire automated license plate readers that mount to the top of squad cars. These readers allow a patrol car to drive through an area and be alerted if a license plate on a flagged list is identified. But the state wants to take the technology a step further by feeding every car’s license plate into a central database. Although this database stores information that directly pertains to police monitoring of an area for illegal activity, such as arrest records, registration and license information, and insurance status, the system would allow the tracking cars of law-abiding citizens as well. Consequently, concerns over privacy have been raised by civil liberty advocates, and in response, the grant money has been put on hold until protocols are defined for handling all the data.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
'Massachusetts Police Want To Track All Cars On The Road — Are Your Rights Being Violated?'
from singularityhub..........
"Last month, the governor of Massachusettsapproved half a million dollars in grants for 27 police departments to acquire automated license plate readers that mount to the top of squad cars. These readers allow a patrol car to drive through an area and be alerted if a license plate on a flagged list is identified. But the state wants to take the technology a step further by feeding every car’s license plate into a central database. Although this database stores information that directly pertains to police monitoring of an area for illegal activity, such as arrest records, registration and license information, and insurance status, the system would allow the tracking cars of law-abiding citizens as well. Consequently, concerns over privacy have been raised by civil liberty advocates, and in response, the grant money has been put on hold until protocols are defined for handling all the data.
While this situation is left in a holding pattern, it gives us pause to reflect on what all this actually means: as in a number of other recent situations that indicate a growing trend, identification technology is outpacing government policy because disagreement about personal rights abounds in the digital age".............READ MORE
"Last month, the governor of Massachusettsapproved half a million dollars in grants for 27 police departments to acquire automated license plate readers that mount to the top of squad cars. These readers allow a patrol car to drive through an area and be alerted if a license plate on a flagged list is identified. But the state wants to take the technology a step further by feeding every car’s license plate into a central database. Although this database stores information that directly pertains to police monitoring of an area for illegal activity, such as arrest records, registration and license information, and insurance status, the system would allow the tracking cars of law-abiding citizens as well. Consequently, concerns over privacy have been raised by civil liberty advocates, and in response, the grant money has been put on hold until protocols are defined for handling all the data.
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