One more reason to love GDPR: this kind of thing is illegal in the EU.
[1] https://data.europa.eu/data/datasets/automatic-number-plate-...
When they say “ Information captured at the Roadside Automatic Number Plate Recognition system. Only vehicles matching specified criteria (e.g. expired test) are captured.” - meaning, that’s what in the dataset. But they have to read every plate to check its expiration status etc. they just don’t put it in this dataset.
But also … how is ANPR in Europe PII? Is there a public/semi-public database that connects plates to owners?
Basically ownership of vehicles is not viewed as private information. So it isn’t covered by privacy legislation. But tracking where the car is, that is covered. That doesn’t stop, speed traps reading car plates, nor parking tracking with cameras. But that info can’t be sold for other purposes.
Income in Sweden is IIRC also public, perhaps in Norway too - and that's also private almost everywhere else.
They are used to read - and recognize - plates.
The official use is to check if the car is insured, or if a stolen / marked car is going through the road, in both cases the police is dispatched to check on the vehichle
They are used on highways to monitor average speed and in cities to check that no "illegal" cars enter the city. Illegal being ones that don't comply with euronorms anymore.