BennettStein

Thanks for your question! The stored license plate reader data can be used to map out location points for every time a person's car was tracked. When law enforcement has information on where a person has been, it can tell a lot about someone. Law enforcement could also look up which cars were near a crime scene - or a political protest. Check out our page on this for more info -- aclu.org/plates.

Hi Everyone, this is Bennett Stein. I am a legal assistant with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project. I authored parts of the license plate report and reviewed many of our responsive documents.

We discuss other privacy risks and provide more examples in our report (http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/071613-aclu-alprreport-opt-v05.pdf) on pages 8 and 9. This includes the case of John Catt, a retiree and anti-war protester, who was pulled over by an anti-terror unit based on a license plate reader hit. The BBC reports that his license plate was put on a hot list after an anti-war protest (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/whos_watching_you/8064333.stm)

Good luck with your speech! I was a student ACLU activist before I started working here so I thank you for talking about us in your class.

I think the Project on Speech, Privacy and Technology (SPT) mission might be helpful for you - it's a bit more detailed:

The ACLU’s Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology (SPT) is dedicated to protecting and expanding the First Amendment freedoms of expression, association, and inquiry; expanding the right to privacy and increasing the control that individuals have over their personal information; and ensuring that civil liberties are enhanced rather than compromised by new advances in science and technology. The project is currently working on a variety of issues, including political protest, freedom of expression online, privacy of electronic information, journalists’ rights, scientific freedom, and openness in the courts.

Really great questions, thanks. No, we do not need to reject the use of license plate readers wholesale. With proper regulation, the civil liberties implications of license plate readers can be very limited. Unregulated license plate reader use poses a problem when law enforcement agencies collect location information from all drivers and store the information for a long period of time. If the license plate reader ran the license plate against a stolen vehicle list and deleted it shortly after, the privacy implications are much smaller. You can read more of our recommendations on page 32 and 33 of our report at http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/071613-aclu-alprreport-opt-v05.pdf.