“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Since 2016, Sacramento County officials have been accessing license plate reader data to track welfare recipients suspected of fraud, the Sacramento Bee reported over the weekend.
Source: California Officials Admit to Using License Plate Readers to Monitor Welfare Recipients
Under a sensitive, previously undisclosed program called “Quiet Skies,” the TSA has since 2010 tasked marshals to identify passengers who raise flags because of travel histories or other factors and conduct secret observations of their actions — including behavior as common as sweating heavily or using the restroom repeatedly — as they fly between U.S. destinations.
The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” It is a collaboration that dates back decades.
Will you have to have an ID to sit in an autonomous vehicle?
Digital driver’s licenses are coming to the United States, harnessing biometrics like facial recognition, fingerprints, and iris scanning for security. Iowa in 2019 plans to begin doling out the licenses state-wide, and Delaware, Virginia, Wyoming, and several other states have conducted small pilot studies of the technology.Photo: IdemiaRob Mikell
Facebook employees think the real problem is leakers, according to posts leaked to The Verge.
Secret files obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal that from 2011 to 2015 at least 319 New York Police Department employees who committed offenses serious enough to merit firing were allowed to keep their jobs.
Source: Secret NYPD Files: Officers Who Lie And Brutally Beat People Can Keep Their Jobs
For now, federal law and Supreme Court precedent dictates that law enforcement has the authority to legally monitor anyone in public. The basic idea is that none of us have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” when we are in public. So just as the police can capture us with video cameras and license plate readers, so, too, could they contract with AV automakers to simply get at vast quantities of future AV data. And if the companies don’t want to play ball, such data can be accessed with a mere court order (known as a “d-order”) under the Stored Communications Act of 1986.
Source: Why cops won’t need a warrant to pull the data off your autonomous car | Ars Technica
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has officially gained agency-wide access to a nationwide license plate recognition database, according to a contract finalized earlier this month. The system gives the agency access to billions of license plate records and new powers of real-time location tracking, raising significant concerns from civil libertarians.
Source: ICE has struck a deal to track license plates across the US – The Verge
