- GPS data is captured along with the license plate information and stored for long periods of time. At least several months. This story shows that government officials are able to enter a license plate and find out where that plate has been over a long stretch of time. No warrant is needed as the information is publicly available (with the exception of the DMV information that is linked to the plate).
- This article shows that outstanding warrant information of the vehicle's owner is also tagged to licensee plates. This allows police to get alerted with a plate, owned by someone with an outstanding warrant, is nearby. Does this provide probable cause for a traffic stop? Hard to say. In the article, police are able to see the driver and confirm that they are not the person wanted for a warrant (normally this would be difficult while following a vehicle). But interestingly, they stop the vehicle anyway for a traffic violation.
Most people don't have a problem with criminals being caught by this technology. But mark my words, this technology is in the public domain and private companies will take advantage of this at some point. If a police officer doesn't need a warrant to collect this public information, what's to stop Google/Microsoft/political parties? And while these public organizations don't have access to DMV records (at least, not easily), they do have access to property records. What's to stop them from driving through residential neighborhoods to collect plate information along with home address information? With a database of address/property owners, they would be able to make an educated guess as to who 60% of the plates belong to. They'll also be able to map out who knows who.
Just like Facebook, except you won't have the option not to join.
Just like Facebook, except you won't have the option not to join.
