Slow Day at the ACLU

[garyg]

Today's news from the ACLU as follows. CNN & BBC are following this bit of non-news, as they have expanded their business models to reap advertising and pay nothing out except the fees for pulling balderdash off Twit feeds ..

Police around the United States are recording the license plates of passing drivers and storing the information for years with little privacy protection, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.​

A state issued license to drive, and the state can't do whatever it ("They" for those of us with the tinfoil hats) wants? Play disco music, a test pattern,

"It Takes a Twit to Raise a Tweet"

 

[rxonmymind]

That's funny. I don't want the DMV to have my license plate number either!! Burn all records after I pay! Dentist keep your teeth record to and send that to the government. (Making that up. It'll be on the news tomorrow or twitter feed)

 

[noahpictures]

How is this legal?

 

[heybatter]

Well count me amongst the tin-foil hatters because I do think that keeping records and constant monitoring such as these indefinitely can lead to misuse.

 

[p.m.a.]

Fine if you don't think it's an issue. However, there are many who believe that US civil liberties have been consistently trampled since 9/11, and we have given rise to a police state. Where's the oversight? For what purpose is this data being collected?

I don't understand what this means - it's an incomplete sentence that just trails off:

A state issued license to drive, and the state can't do whatever it ("They" for those of us with the tinfoil hats) wants? Play disco music, a test pattern,

 

[rearviewmirror]

They collect the data and then run the registration info against multiple databases to see if the car is stolen or the person it's registered to has any outstanding warrants.
I see no problem with this. They're not collecting the data to sell or track, they're collecting it to catch bad guys.

 

[ChiefBroom]

If I lived in a neighborhood with a suspected crack-house where my kids were threatened by drive-by shootings, I probably wouldn't mind very much if police collected and stored information regarding plate numbers that passed-through, including frequency and times.

Point isn't that abuses don't occur or that balances and oversights with appropriate transparency don't need to be vigilantly maintained. It's that there are trade-offs. We don't all agree about where, when, and how those trade-offs should be made. That's probably good. And it's a healthy topic for pubic debate. That is as long as it doesn't carry into discussion of politics within B&B. That could be a very slippery slope.

 

[heybatter]

They collect the data and then run the registration info against multiple databases to see if the car is stolen or the person it's registered to has any outstanding warrants.
I see no problem with this. They're not collecting the data to sell or track, they're collecting it to catch bad guys.

If this is the only reason to use these then it is a little easier to swallow. However, the Minn. Star Tribune found that in June 2012, the Minneapolis police department scanned over 805,000 license plates and had hits on only 1% of those scans. How many of these hits led to actual arrests and/or police intervention?

Also, even though the Supreme Court ruled that a judge's approval is needed to track a car by GPS, having an extensive network of these around any area can create enough scans to gather a clear tracking picture of a car's movements.

Should I feel comfortable that my government can collect all this data surreptitiously and then keep in indefintely all under the guise of public safety?

 

[Toothpick]

If it makes me safer on the road I don't mind. If they target me for parking tickets, we got a problem.

 

[jzuzphreek]

Personally, I think we should all move to caves and stop using plastic bags. Of course, the cave would need wifi... gotta be able to access B&B.

 

[Mick]

If you don't want to be registered. Don't sign up.

If you don't want DMV to have your info, don't get a driver's license. Don't buy a car. Don't open a bank account.

I try to fly as low under the radar as I can.

Heck it took the FBI 9 months to find me after I moved the last time which an eternity for them (don't ask, you don't want to know)

 

[jzuzphreek]

If you don't want to be registered. Don't sign up.

If you don't want DMV to have your info, don't get a driver's license. Don't buy a car. Don't open a bank account.

I try to fly as low under the radar as I can.

Heck it took the FBI 9 months to find me after I moved the last time which an eternity for them (don't ask, you don't want to know)

Actually Mick, it only took them 1 week to find you. The first 8 months, 3 weeks were just paperwork.

 

[PugslyCat]

What's more interesting to me is that the state and even local governments get absolute privacy for their own vehicles. That's been a hot topic here in Iowa lately.

 

[bamafan64]

Numerous allegations came to light about the federal government spying and collecting data on its own citizens over a month ago and all we've seen from them in the aftermath are weak excuses and stonewalling. The news has let it fall from the headlines pretty much, and nothing but a weak and blatantly token complaint from Congress. In the not so distant past, people responsible for this would have faced a minimum of being kicked out of office if not prison or worse for these crimes.
The quote about trading liberty for security comes to mind more and more. We've been told openly that we can't have security without compromising some of our privacy-a direct violation of the Constitution. The same Constitution said violators swore to uphold when they took office. This has been going with both parties in charge of our government, too, so it's not like it's a partisan argument. Since theses stories have come to the public eye, there have been no charges brought up, no arrests, no terminations, not even any resignations. The news cycle has pretty much dropped it from the headlines. There have been the usual weak and token complaints from a few on both sides of the aisle in Congress, but at least as many if not more have defended these actions. Our elected officials in office now are not going to hold anyone accountable, so it is up to us to do so since the majority seem to have not lived up to the oath they took. Look up who represents you in Washington. It only takes a minute to email your Congressman and Senators, and they are looked at to gauge public opinion. It is generally thought that for every letter, email or phone call they receive, ten thousand more constituents agree. Staffers tally up all the opinions and let who they work for know what their constituents think. Even with the low public opinion of Congress lately, once elected they tend to stay in office. They are elected to represent us, not erode our Constitutional rights and make a fortune off of laws they create and tax dollars. We, whether liberal, conservative or libertarian, have to change this and let these public "servants" know they can be replaced if they don't live up to their oaths.

 

[Haggises]

So long as Art is King, what do I care?

 

[jzuzphreek]

So long as Art is King, what do I care?

+1

Whatever they do, they better not mess with Ouch, either.

 

[ouch]

Speaking of which, this thread is not doing well at all.

 

[rearviewmirror]

If this is the only reason to use these then it is a little easier to swallow. However, the Minn. Star Tribune found that in June 2012, the Minneapolis police department scanned over 805,000 license plates and had hits on only 1% of those scans. How many of these hits led to actual arrests and/or police intervention?

Also, even though the Supreme Court ruled that a judge's approval is needed to track a car by GPS, having an extensive network of these around any area can create enough scans to gather a clear tracking picture of a car's movements.

Should I feel comfortable that my government can collect all this data surreptitiously and then keep in indefintely all under the guise of public safety?

I work for a local gov't. We have a few cars with them. In the first week of using them, they had made 2 arrests. I'm not sure how many we've had overall since they were implemented, but I'll look into it.

 

[gegarrenton]

Is there really someone who thinks they haven't been doing this since license plates have existed? Cops have run plates and kept records since time immemorial (or the day plates came out, anyway).

 

[Pebcak]

They collect the data and then run the registration info against multiple databases to see if the car is stolen or the person it's registered to has any outstanding warrants.
I see no problem with this. They're not collecting the data to sell or track, they're collecting it to catch bad guys.

Isn't that the reasoning being used for Prism and Carnivore though?