A federal judge calls a Flock plate search unconstitutional; Sanders files a bill to ban federal use
The judge's reasoning on why location tracking in public can still need a warrant.
Federal Judge Sara Hill of the Northern District of Oklahoma ruled that a sheriff's deputy violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights by searching Flock's license-plate database without a warrant, apparently only because her car had California plates, and suppressed the evidence that followed. "This is a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance," she wrote. The ruling does not bind other courts.
On October 2, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the Ban Flock Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Jeff Merkley, which would bar federal agencies from using any automatic license-plate reader or its data, except for tolls and uses Congress later approves. TechCrunch notes the bill faces long odds.
Across the spectrum 2
Democrat
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a Ban Flock Act co-sponsor: "AI-powered cameras are keeping track of our every move and weaponizing this data against working people to make record profits. The widespread integration of this technology into American society is unconscionable."
404 Media ↗Republican
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) proposes a narrower fix, the Stop Flock Abuse Act: written approval for each search, deleting driver data after ten days except for active investigations, and a ban on adding facial recognition to license-plate reader networks.
404 Media ↗-
Carpenter v. United States
After exploring Federal judge calls Flock 'indiscriminate mass surveillance', the Supreme Court case the judge weighed is Carpenter v. United States.
The 2018 ruling that the government violates the Fourth Amendment when it obtains historical cellphone location records without a warrant.
Wikipedia · Swim · 30 min
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Automatic number-plate recognition
After exploring Federal judge calls Flock 'indiscriminate mass surveillance', for the technology itself, see Automatic number-plate recognition.
ANPR uses optical character recognition to read license plates and build vehicle location data. Police use it worldwide; it's also used for tolls and tracking traffic.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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