Police license plate readers are still exposed on the internet
April 17, 2019rajtechnews
Police license plate readers are still exposed on the internet

You might have heard of automatic license plate recognition — known as ALPR (or ANPR in the U.K. for number plates). These cameras are dotted across the U.S., and are controlled mostly by police departments and government agencies to track license plates — and people — from place to place. In doing so, they can reveal where you live, where you go and who you see. Considered a massive invasion of privacy by many and legally questionable by some, there are tens of thousands of ALPR readers across the U.S. collectively reading and recording thousand of license plates — and locations — every minute, the ACLU says, becoming one of the new and emerging forms of mass surveillance in the U.S.

But some cameras are connected to the internet, and are easily identifiable. Worse, some are leaking sensitive data about vehicles and their drivers — and many have weak security protections that make them easily accessible.

Security researchers have been warning for years that ALPR devices are exposed and all too often accessible from the internet. The Electronic Frontier Foundation found in 2015 dozens of exposed devices in its own investigation not long after Boston’s entire ALPR network was found exposed, thanks to a server security lapse.

But in the three years past, little has changed.

So in essence your info is out there and can be easily hacked, revealing a lot about you...


https://cropcrip.com/police-li...sed-on-the-internet/

So what?

Companies do this more than the cops....they sell your info to the highest bidder for marketing.

Not aimed at the police, it's the manufacturers, who are not securing the data.
There's a lot of detail like name address phone etc that would leave i.e. a female very vulnerable in the wrong hands.

In the wrong hands that data could be very dangerous.
You could track when a wealthy couple comes and goes, and knowing their schedule would give the opportunity for a rolling roadblock armed robbery.
The ability to track an armored truck and knowing what pickups had already been made.
Freight trucks full of electronics, or cigarettes...
Kidnapping for ransom.

In the wrong hands, that info could be more dangerous than name/address/phone number.

Contracting to the lowest bidder?

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Not aimed at the police, it's the manufacturers, who are not securing the data.
There's a lot of detail like name address phone etc that would leave i.e. a female very vulnerable in the wrong hands.

You do realize that you can just follow your next victim home from the grocery store? You don’t need all the info gathered in a LPR.

I’m not suggesting that you take up serial killing or even mild stalking. The point is that it doesn’t matter. All of your tag info is easily gathered at the DMV, some states charge a small fee for the register owners info. You can even do it online now.

If you carry a cell phone, or smart watch, your movements are easily tracked in detail. They are tracked, too.

the point is that we shouldn't be surveilled in the first place

Maybe you shouldn't, but you'd be very naive to think you're not, on multiple fronts. All your data is already had. All your movements are meticulously recorded. Your movements online are being recorded right now.

Google's stated aim is to gather all information on all people everywhere. Those handy-dandy google cars with the cameras on top that people like to use to see street views were always about gathering electronic data; they were taking pictures, but also capturing evrything they could. People got excited about it for a while, then seemed to forget. Now Google sends balloons overhead with their equipment on board, regularly, day at night.

Privacy should happen. It doesn't, and hasn't for a long time. If you think anything you do or say or post or surf or anywhere you go is private, you're blissfully unaware. This is particularly so if you're in a public space.

quote:

Originally posted by sns3guppy:
If you carry a cell phone, or smart watch, your movements are easily tracked in detail. They are tracked, too.

This, in spades. Everyone that carries one has a self inflicted tracking device. Hacking license plate readers seems pointless at this point.

To whom does the 4th amendment apply?

There's a difference between people voluntarily using a companies products and being told they are tracked and our government tracking us against our will.

exactly

the fact that they do it doesn't make it right

I have a smart phone. its turned off unless I want to make a call

I don't use google as a search engine, don't have an iwatch or whatever the hell its called

I try to reduce my digital footprint as much as possible.

As far as I'm concerned, the ONLY person that needs to know where I am is me

I wish we'd have a US Supreme Court case over all this surveillance bullshit once and for all

Not mentioned, but should be more widely known by the defense (in criminal cases certainly and potentially for use in civil matters as well) is the fact that these devices not only exist, but the information gathered is discoverable as a government record and could be used to provide an alibi(s) by those wrongfully charged. I've provided training on this to our local Bar Association "Continuing Legal Education" program and none of the 100+ attendees were aware of the programs and their potential.

quote:

Originally posted by pulicords:
Not mentioned, but should be more widely known by the defense (in criminal cases certainly and potentially for use in civil matters as well) is the fact that these devices not only exist, but the information gathered is discoverable as a government record and could be used to provide an alibi(s) by those wrongfully charged. I've provided training on this to our local Bar Association "Continuing Legal Education" program and none of the 100+ attendees were aware of the programs and their potential.

You’re lowering the stock futures on tin foil as you speak...

As an Ex Private Investigator I can say this:
You have no real privacy. None. All you have going for you is no one has taken an interest in you.
Try this experiment:
In the course of a normal day, try to notice and count how many cameras have recorded you. It will be a surprising number and you will have missed quite a few.
As I type this, this is the current data track on me:
My Internet provider.
My WI-FI Router.
My Computer.
My Cable Box.
My Cell Phone.
My Landlord.
My Truck. (I just got an email from it)
Quite possibly, any number of my neighbors have cameras up and running.
And you guys on SF.
And I am just sitting on my couch.
Privacy? That ship has long sailed. And it was trackable too.

And all of those items listed are voluntary relationships you have chosen to have with private companies that requires a warrant for the government to obtain the information stored by those companies. Admittedly, I could be completely wrong as this is my simple minded understanding.

License plate readers operated by government employees, collecting and storing information on citizens' where about is not a voluntary relationship with a private company. It's a plain and simple fourth amendment violation.

quote:

You could track when a wealthy couple comes and goes, and knowing their schedule would give the opportunity for a rolling roadblock armed robbery.
The ability to track an armored truck and knowing what pickups had already been made.
Freight trucks full of electronics, or cigarettes...
Kidnapping for ransom.

In the wrong hands, that info could be more dangerous than name/address/phone number.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Hmmm. I like how your mind works. LOL

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

License plate readers operated by government employees, collecting and storing information on citizens' where about is not a voluntary relationship with a private company. It's a plain and simple fourth amendment violation.

The SCOTUS has already ruled that you have no expectation of privacy once you leave your house.

So they could have an officer follow you around all day and write it down or they can just buy the info that is already out there collected by companies you willingly give out. No warrant is required. Trust me, there are data bases that can find out where you work, live, cars, cell numbers and everything else about you that the cops already have access to....someone else noted that you are not noteworthy until you do something wrong and they type in your tag or your SSN....

Good grief...

The average American surveils themselves with their stupid ass smart phone that tracks you 24/7/365, not just the 2 or 3 times your plate might get ran per year....

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Not aimed at the police, it's the manufacturers, who are not securing the data.
There's a lot of detail like name address phone etc that would leave i.e. a female very vulnerable in the wrong hands.

And not a single bit of this is stored or known by the camera itself. So the author is uneducated on the topic or the article is poorly written.
The computer or sever where the character strings are sent then processed are the issue. On top of that the info generally needs to be deciphered and compared with actual data by a person.
Most can tell no difference between Colorado Tag 234HSD, Kentucky Tag 234HSD, or Lou’s Plumbing license# 234HSD that is on the back door of his van.
The systems just read a number string and compare it with what has been entered in the database.
If you get a the direct footage or pictures from the reader one still has to do a fair amount of leg work to figure things out.
You don’t drive past a camera and the camera automatically says ohh there went Steve Smith in his 1972 Ford Pinto Blue in color registered to 1932 Secret Street, Hidden Place USA, phone 656-555-1325, he has 7 kids by 4 women, two dogs, a cat, and a sugar glider.