License Plate Reader Predictions
Place Your Bets
Prediction: Within ten years, there will be a ubiquitous network of license plate readers in the United States. They will track the location of every car down to the parking lot or housing sub-division level at all times1.
It will be effectively impossible to travel by car without your location being known in real time.
Knocking On
- The location data will be available to law enforcement
- Law enforcement will use it to gather names of folks who attend protests and rallies
- The location data will be for sale to anyone who wants to purchase it wholesale
- Location history will of individual plate will also be for sale
- You'll be able to pay a fee to prevent your data from being available for sale (but not from law enforcement)
- Reviewing the location history of someone's car will be become a part of background checks in hiring practices
- Business that share parking lots with sex toy stores will suffer
- Real time tracking will be available
- Companies will use services that track their employees and provide reports and alerts if they enter predefined areas2
- Groups will use the information to track their own members and those they oppose
- Credit card usage will be correlated with the data3
- Rental car companies will sell information to correlate license plates with the renters
- Domestic abusers will purchase the data to track their victims. This will lead to murders
- The network will be breached and the contents dumped on the internet
Endnotes
This post is about the U.S. You can extrapolate to the country of your choice.
You can already be tracked by your phone. My understanding is that that data is not publicly available. The license plate data will be.
The increasing number of facial recognition systems will supplement the surveillance data. They'll make determinations of who gets into or out of any car that's visible to them.
Footnotes
Rural areas will have less fidelity, but still be covered enough to provide details. Monitoring specific locations.
For example, if you call in sick a company can watch your car to see where it goes if you take it anywhere.
For example, credit card usage in taxies will be correlated to provide a level of tracking in areas where individuals generally don't have their own cars.