From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.

From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.

  • Shortstack@reddthat.comEnglish
    1271·
    3 months ago

    Alright! Dystopian nightmare timeline is a go!

    I especially like the part where cops are reported to heavily abuse these databases for personal agendas or to share with criminals. Truly ACAB

    This is a very good reason to maintain the appearance of neutrality while facing your local community

    This might even be an argument for putting those smoked opaque covers on your license plates even if it’s questionably legal. There’s more than a few people out there with definitely not legal smoked covers to the point you literally can’t read their plates unless you’re tailgating them, and cops don’t give a shit because nobody is ever pulled over for illegal mods. I’d wager that the cameras can’t read them either if you can’t at 10 yards

    • nnullzz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      641·
      3 months ago

      The real dystopian nightmare is the one where everyone conforms and acts neutral out of fear. That’s how we really lose who we are and any sense of improving the situation.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
        91·
        3 months ago

        There are other ways to resist, esp in the days of the internet.

        Modern tech permits state actors to obtain real life information about your where abouts. This tech now appears to be percolating to street police. There is a lot of abuse already happening but we are several big cases away before the daddy sam tryied to reign this shit in, if ever.

        Point being got to be careful when dealing with the state or other quasi state insinuations as such corporation. Remember when Chevron got a lawyer with some bullshit criminal conviction with a private prosecutors as retaliation about his work on case against them in LatAm?

    • Landless2029@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I wonder if it would be illegal to put IR lights around your plate to blind the camera …

      Gears turning…

      Yep. Then automatic tolls and traffic cams can’t track you. Cop would pull you over real quick.

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        71·
        3 months ago

        If you rtfa you’d see there is already an easy workaround for this. You just need to be driving faster than 150mph and the camera can’t read the plate.

        Also, this isn’t what the article is about. I think it bad enough there is a network of cops and scumbags (guess that’s redundant) recording all this LP data into the DRN network, but it’s being abused to go well beyond LP data as a free for all search of acquired imagery.