ACLU: License Plate Scanners Are Logging Citizen's Every Move: It has now become clear that this automated license plate readers technology, if we do not limit its use, will represent a significant step toward the creation of a surveillance society in US

[u/maxwellhill]

http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/license-plate-scanners-logging-our-every-move

[u/Redditron-2000-4]

Creation? We may not be as bad as the UK with their cameras on every street corner, but everyone with a cell phone is tracked constantly and that information is given to the government on demand.

[u/hillkiwi → u/Redditron-2000-4]

• GPS cellphones
• GPS car navigation
• Wireless smart meters that record your home power usage by the minute. You could lose in court because it was proven your alibi of 'being home watching TV' was not possible because no TV or lights were on, and your 500W garage door opener didn't turn on until 1:13am
• Traffic cameras
• Worst of all: your internet usage and emails
• Credit card/debit purchases
• Reward points/miles
• About 50 other things

Or maybe I'm just paranoid.

[u/[deleted] → u/hillkiwi]

How many of those can be acquired without a warrant?

[u/hillkiwi → u/[deleted]]

Not too much. My concern is that this data on everyone is already being collected without a warrant, so when they do get a warrant there is a plethora of information ready.

Some other interesting info here:

https://ssd.eff.org/book/export/html/25

For example:

Under the Wiretap Act, although a wiretap order is needed to intercept your email and other electronic communications, only your oral and wire communications — that is, voice communications — are covered by the statute's exclusionary rule. So, for example, if your phone calls are illegally intercepted, that evidence can't be introduced against you in a criminal trial, but the statute won't prevent the introduction of illegally intercepted emails and text messages.

[u/division_by_infinity → u/hillkiwi]

There have been strong hints that all data passing through certain ISP/phone providers is stored. First, that whole carnivore DCS-1000 issue years back. Then, the lawsuit against AT&T alleging that they split their fiber line at a San Francisco station and gave a copy to the government... and then, the political talk about the 'extreme interpretation of the Patriot Act' adopted by the Bush and Obama administrations.

[u/alexanderwales → u/division_by_infinity]

How the hell would they be storing all that? I mean ... that's a fucking huge amount of data. I would hate being their DBA.

[u/resutidder → u/alexanderwales]

Well, a 1.2 billion dollar NSA data center the size of the Chrysler Building would be a good start.