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.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      Only for the government. The workaround for mass warrantless surveillance is to contract a private company. Since you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in public, it’s not illegal to take a picture of your car as it drives by. You could do the same thing, just go outside your local police station and take pictures of the cars and write down the license plates and times they go by. Nobody will bother you because it’s perfectly legal and the police obviously won’t care that you’re doing it because it’s not illegal and they will thank you for making them feel safer.

        • PriorityMotif@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          1 month ago

          Since those cameras are so easy to deploy, it would be trivial to place them near gun stores and gun ranges, and other places frequented by gun owners, it’s not a gun registry though. It’s simply four catching criminals and for the children’s safety of course. If you go against the police you are un-American

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        police obviously won’t care

        Unless you’re taking pictures of police vehicles, in which case they definitely care. Still not illegal, but they’ll most likely harass you for it.

        But hey, you can make a living suing police departments, there are worse things to spend your time on.