San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners on Garbage Trucks

mercurynews.com

7 points·forgettableuser··4 comments

I don't have any plates on my 6 month old car. The penalty for not having plates is just a $20 fix-it ticket and no points on your record (you will never get pulled over just for not having plates, especially if the car looks new). The upside is that you can't be identified by cameras or passing cars (though when parked, the VIN is still visible unless you cover that too).

More likely used to find cars that have significant parking fees, and/or expired tabs.

It doesn't matter what it's used for today, and it especially doesn't matter what you or I think it will be used for.

Data doesn't got away, and aggregation of data makes it more dangerous. The problem is when this data is combined with other licence plate databases in the future to produce a map of most people's movement data.

As we've seen with the recent Ashley Madison and OPM hacks, the person doing the aggregation may not be the people who originally collected the data. In fact, the obvious problem of someone finding the intersection of the Ashley Madison leaks with the security-critical people affected by the OBM hacks is a perfect example of this kind of risk.

Finding a way to properly secure a database filled with personal information will be necessary in some cases, but limiting the risks will always be a better idea. Data that isn't saved cannot be stolen in the future.

Those are the parameters you hope for. However, history has proven that this data will be used for a lot more than you have imagined.

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