Analyst's note: Absolutely must read. In the In the Bay Area of California alone, at least 32 government agencies use license-plate readers and share the photos of American citizens doing nothing wrong with local, state and federal organizations. Where else is this technology being use? The technologies have known links with the CIA’s venture capital fund through a company called In-Q-Tel. So are movements too revealing for someone who has done nothing wrong? With the technology being used they can tell who your friends are, who you hang out with, where you go to church, or whether you’ve been to a political meeting .... and you've done nothing wrong. The federal intelligence center database will store license-plate records for up to two years, but we don't know the data retention limits set by local police departments.
At the very best, this sweep is being done in order NOT to go beyond political correctness and profile the Muslim enemy operating inside our country. One question I have is will the data be included in the ObamaCare Data Hub or maybe shared with the IRS or "progressive" (socialist/Marxists) political operatives?
Who is going to make sure that elements of the Muslim Brotherhood operating inside our DoJ, DoD, DHS, FBI and elsewhere do not gain access and use the data for targeted killing Americans. We know this enemy is operating inside our federal government, etc., etc., etc.? The answer to that question is "No one!" Think about it! We already have The President and Members of Congress Giving Aid and Comfort to Known Enemies of the United States.
In the mean time, court doctrine on the use of this technology against law-abiding American citizens remains nonexistent. Also see License plate locations tracked, details stored. So who Watches the Watchers?
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Credit: Michael Katz-Lacabe
When the city of San Leandro, Calif., purchased a license-plate reader for its police department in 2008, computer security consultant Michael Katz-Lacabe asked the city for a record of every time the scanners had photographed his car.
The results shocked him.
The paperback-size device, installed on the outside of police cars, can log thousands of license plates in an eight-hour patrol shift. Katz-Lacabe said it had photographed his two cars on 112 occasions, including one image from 2009 that shows him and his daughters stepping out of his Toyota Prius in their driveway.
That photograph, Katz-Lacabe said, made him “frightened and concerned about the magnitude of police surveillance and data collection.” The single patrol car in San Leandro equipped with a plate reader had logged his car once a week on average, photographing his license plate and documenting the time and location.
At a rapid pace, and mostly hidden from the public, police agencies throughout California have been collecting millions of records on drivers and feeding them to intelligence fusion centers operated by local, state and federal law enforcement.
Credit: San Leandro Police Department photo courtesy of Michael Katz-Lacabe
[....] heightened concern over secret intelligence operations at the National Security Agency, the localized effort to track drivers highlights the extent to which the government has committed to collecting large amounts of data on people who have done nothing wrong.
[....] The extent of the center’s data collection has never been revealed. Neither has the involvement of Palantir, a Silicon Valley firm with extensive ties to the Pentagon and intelligence agencies. The CIA’s venture capital fund, In-Q-Tel, has invested $2 million in the firm. The jurisdictions supplying license-plate data to the intelligence center stretch from Monterey County to the Oregon border. According to contract documents, the database will be capable of handling at least 100 million records and be accessible to local and state law enforcement across the region.
Law enforcement agencies throughout Northern California will be able to access the data, as will state and federal authorities.
[....] Katz-Lacabe, who was featured in a Wall Street Journal story last year, said he believes the records of his movements are too revealing for someone who has done nothing wrong. With the technology, he said, “you can tell who your friends are, who you hang out with, where you go to church, whether you’ve been to a political meeting.” [....]
