According to American Civil Liberties Union, the United States police have been recording the license plates of incoming drivers and storing all of the information for years, sans privacy protection. The data collected since the start of the license plate collection of the police allows authorities to virtually track the movements of any car.
The American Civil Liberties Union performed a study on surveillance made by the police by reviewing almost 26,000 pages of documents acquired through public records requests. The span of the research included 600 local and state police offices in 39 states including District of Columbia.
"The documents paint a startling picture of a technology deployed with too few rules that is becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance," said the ACLU in a statement.
Police uses license plate readers to alert them of possible vehicles associated with crime reports. "Such instances account for a tiny fraction of license plate scans, and too many police departments are storing millions of records about innocent drivers," added the ACLU.
Information on potential customers can be sold to industries for a hefty amount, creating an industry of its own. Similar civilian data were reportedly handed out to and from businesses in the mobile carrier, marketing, advertising, and many other relevant industries.
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