Is Your Town Driving into a Privacy Nightmare? Hidden Dangers of Traffic Cameras

It’s an easy sell when only the benefits are touted, but were all of the disadvantages ever mentioned? Read on for a rude awakening, these mass surveillance devices are a real threat to our republic.

“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

Traffic cameras have been around our country for nearly two decades. During that time they have violated countless privacy laws by capturing images of individuals in public spaces without their explicit consent. To better understand how big of an issue this really is, just do a simple internet search. The specific type that are most concerning are known as Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras. These cameras are less often used for traffic management purposes, but are geared more towards mass surveillance.

These ALPR cameras capture more than just license plates; the photos are used to create what the company calls a searchable “Vehicle Fingerprint.” Using a “proprietary machine learning algorithm,” the company says, it gathers “vehicle make, type, color, license plate, state of the license plate, covered plates, missing plates, and unique features like roof racks and bumper stickers.” Presumably that would allow searches for all vehicles that include a particular political bumper sticker, enabling people to be targeted based on the exercise of their First Amendment-protected free expression rights.

Check out the rest of the article on DoG’s blog.