[delayed]
Has there been any reporting into whether Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise has adequate data access controls around SunPass? They have ALPRs to operate the toll-by-plate system on bridges and toll roads across the state.<p>In my view, that’s one of the better reasons to have ALPRs at all, but you do need strict controls to prevent misuse.
This refers only to Flock cameras. In Pinellas and Hillsborough counties (probably others or even most, but I cannot personally verify), there are non-Flock ALPR cameras on every major intersection stoplight gantry, feeding license plate and vehicular-fingerprint data to regional LE "Fusion Centers," where Palantir's Gotham product absolutely is in use. This is of course in addition to FDOT's PTZ cameras also. Forgive a cynic for telling you that banning Flock on state highways is purely performative in such light.
[delayed]
The memo refers to all ALPR systems, and does not mention Flock at all.<p>It's one page: <a href="https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/default-source/design/bulletins/eom26-01.pdf?sfvrsn=52938dee_1&Status=Master" rel="nofollow">https://fdotwww.blob.core.windows.net/sitefinity/docs/defaul...</a>
I’m sure they’ll clarify this, but wouldn’t that include SunPass toll-by-plate facilities?
In that case, marvelous. Here's hoping it's actually executed.
"On Monday, Aug. 31, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) issued a memorandum revoking existing permits for automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems, commonly referred to by the brand name "Flock cameras," that are installed within the right of way of roads on the State Highway System."<p>Very first paragraph. "Flock" is basically being used like "Kleenex" here
Florida is leading the nation on wise legislation where surveillance is involved in this example. It isn't doing too bad on income tax and other pain points either.
I cannot help to think 1 or more politician or their children was caught breaking a serious law that they would have avoided if the camera was not there. So the fix is to ban the cameras.
This is definitely a good step, however, ALPRs are not going away unfortunately. They have and are and will keep getting deployed by private businesses. They are too valuable for them at this time. The likes of Wal-Mart, etc., will potentially sell information to brokers and so on and some aggregator will resell the data to whomever wants to use the data.
I once interviewed for a trucking logistics SAAS vendor who installed cameras every X number of miles to track shipments of freight. their moat was that physical surveillance network that they had already installed, cameras which scanned (like Flock) not just license plates but decals, looked for signals for driver awareness, collected EMF emissions to see if certain safety and satellite features were on, etc<p>now they said they didn't sell their data to LEOs but their founders also literally used to work for the CIA (it was bragged about in the initial interviews)<p>I wouldn't be surprised if companies of that kind are a dime-a-dozen
Any business that puts an ALPR in their parking lot is a business I do not visit.
How would you know if it's there?<p>I ask rhetorically but I also imagine that at some point there will be an app that tells you and then people will vote with their dollars to the places that don't have them.
DeFlock already tracks ALPRs in private businesses' parking lots. <a href="https://maps.deflock.org/" rel="nofollow">https://maps.deflock.org/</a>
It won’t matter. Slow encroachment. Everyone has learned from Google that slow encroachment gets what you want.<p>Price sensitive folks going to dollar general, wal-mart, etc., are not going to go shop at whole foods (assuming they even differentiate), and for people who go to ikea or Lowe’s for home goods, it’s not like they’re going to drive 30 miles out of their way to avoid ALPRs.<p>We can get pols to not deploy them with public monies, but I think that’s all we can do.
>We can get pols to not deploy them with public monies, but I think that’s all we can do.<p>If we tighten the 4th through 8th amendment case law to reign in the current wild west that is civil enforcement by holding them to the same standards for data access and imposing of penalties that criminal enforcement is the problem would be a lot smaller because then the tracking would be mostly limited to private interests who simply want to screw you out of your money but you can mostly choose not to do business with or will open up themselves to being undercut if they take too much.
Where are you gonna go when everyone has them?
This is the wrong thing to do, but we need more. Mass surveillance is a crime against humanity.
Fundamentally we need controls on how both the state and private industry can store, use, and share such data.<p>Playing whack-a-mole with each specific type of surveillance and company involved isn't really fixing the issue.
What is the wrong thing to do?
It's almost like in the movie Minority Report. The state knows where you are at all times (well, not entirely true right now, but to a high extent true now, at the least for car drivers).