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DHS Cancels Plan For National License Plate Tracking System
Fresh on the heels of the administration's decision to embed "government researchers" in the mainstream media to make sure they are doing their job properly (just as Maduro has decreed in Venezuela and punished CNN for?), we find out that the Department of Homeland Security planned to outsource the creation of a gigantic, comprehensive nationwide license plate database to a private corporation enabling license plate recognition "to catch illegal immigrants." However, after extreme pushback by privacy advocates, WaPo reports the DHS has cancelled the plan amid "a serious management problem within this DHS component that currently does not have a director nominated by the president."
Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog describes the original plan...
The status quo is now overtly doubling down on surveillance in the wake of the Snowden revelations rather than reigning them in. Game is on folks. Things are getting very serious.
From the Washington Post:
The Department of Homeland Security wants a private company to provide a national license-plate tracking system that would give the agency access to vast amounts of information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers, according to a government proposal that does not specify what privacy safeguards would be put in place.
The national license-plate recognition database, which would draw data from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, would help catch fugitive illegal immigrants, according to a DHS solicitation. But the database could easily contain more than 1 billion records and could be shared with other law enforcement agencies, raising concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens who are under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.
It’s for the children! How can you object to saving the children!
“It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise, and the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government,” she said.
Yeah, because that makes me feel so much better…
But civil liberties groups are not assuaged. “Ultimately, you’re creating a national database of location information,” said Jennifer Lynch, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “When all that data is compiled and aggregated, you can track somebody as they’re going through their life.”
The agency said the length of time the data is retained would be up to the winning vendor.Vigilant Solutions, for instance, one of the leading providers of tag-reader data, keeps its records indefinitely.
Nationwide, local police as well as commercial companies are gathering license-plate data using various means. One common method involves drivers for repossession companies methodically driving up and down streets with cameras mounted on their cars snapping photos of vehicles. Some police forces have cameras mounted on patrol cars. Other images may be retrieved from border crossings, interstate highway on-ramps and toll plazas.
Some questions about ICE’s plan remain open. The agency could not say how long the data would be stored, which other law enforcement agencies would have access to it and what constitutes an “investigative lead” to allow database querying.
The DHS effort arises as states are confronting policy choices about the use of license-plate readers. Laws vary across jurisdictions on how long data can be stored and who may have access. Some delete the data after 48 hours. Others keep it indefinitely. About 20 states have passed or proposed legislation that would restrict the use of such readers or the storage of the data. Utah has a law prohibiting commercial companies from using automated high-speed cameras to photograph license plates. Vigilant has filed a First Amendment lawsuit to overturn the ban.
Full article here.
And the follow-up:
The DHS has canceled the plan due to outrage. This is what we can achieve if we are informed and keep the pressure on. I expect them to be back at it in the future, so stay vigilant.
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The DHS is anti-American.
EDIT: Bitchez
The terrorists won.
Just be done with it, line up everyone in America and we all take turns saying "Prisoner" or "Guard." Not cutsies, no switching spots... you are what you get, and you're stuck with it for life.
Chances of total employment: 100%
Chance of total safety: 100%
Chance of liberty: 0%
Chances of total employment: 100%
Chance of total safety: .1%
Chance of liberty: 0%
There would only be security for those who can afford to pay for it.
Pay? Where we're going, we don't need... pay.
The concept of money and currency are obviously removed in such a setting. The State feeds/houses the Guards and the Prisoners. It's just up to you to take pride in your job role.
"My mama said I could either be a Prisoner or Guard when I growed up."
Somebody always games the system. Always.
SOPA.... THEN PIPA... THEN... I forget (was it CISPA?)... THEN I forget again... they will aways try and retry, and re-retry... until they win.
They will crumble under their own weight. In the process of crumbling, they will become very dangerous, then they will be gone, or completely irrelevant.
they will become very dangerous, then they will be gone, or completely irrelevant.
YES!
FYI for those that don't know. This whole plate reading system is already up and running in Washington D.C.
Has been for some time.
They track every car and have a detailed info. log for each one (ie: plate, owner, and driver pic etc.)
Every car.
Coming to a city near you, regardless of whether you want it or not.
Ain't life grand.
My bicycle looks better every day.
I'm sure they can get Google to run this system. I know people who would pay good money to know where people drive so they can target ads. You know, you take a short cut through the red light district on the way to church and the ZH ads start offering low cost HIV tests.
Maybe they could switch off every other day...
@ headbanger
that, my friend , is crystal clear.
thanks for reminding those who think
they are 'free'
@Headbanger
Plus 1 - IF BY TERRORISTS you mean our government who is now embedded with the news...
"I've suffered as greatly from an abusive press as any man in public life, but I get an itchy, uncomfortable feeling at the base of my spine when someone suggest that government should control the news."
Eerie and prophetic at the same time.
I think government plans for this type of surveillance pre-date the DHS.
I remember working late one night 20 year or more ago when I got one of those random calls from some federal agency taking a survey. I was a little intrigued by the descriptiong of the survey by the robo caller so I agreed to take it.
It became very obvious almost immediately that they were trying to figure out the most palatable way to spin police state type surveillance on the American public.
I was told to punch in numbers on the phone based on a scale of 1 to 10, if I recall, with 1 being very upset about such a plan and 10 being enthusiastically supportive.
They were broken into several different segments such as
If we were to install surveillance cameras in public places like train and bus stations, airports, etc. how upset would you be if we did so to
A. Cause people to behave better because they knew they were on camera?
B. Enabled paramedics to find injured people, or those suffering heart attacks more quickly and saved lives?
C. Helped police catch criminals?
D. Reduced terrorist attemps?
E. Enabled us to catch terrorist?
F. Enabled us to stop terrorists before an attack was carried out?
They asked quite a few more questions, but often with slight variations in the wording, presumably checking to see if wording things a little differently would make the implementation a little more palatable, or at least less outrageous.
Then they would proceed on to the next section such as How upset would you be if we used new technology to track the movement of individual vehicles if...
A. It enabled emergency responders to find injured people in accidents more quickly?
B. If it was used to moderate traffic flow and help re-route traffic in the event of delays, or accidents etc.?
C. It helped to catch fleeing criminals?
D. It helped find stolen autos?
E. It caught terrorists, etc. ...
The survey took quite a bit longer than I had expected and they had a lot more questions than I expected. I was able to go through them fairly quickly because my answers were pretty similar throughout, but it became somewhat tedious, even though I was fascinated at what they seemed to be trying to do, because they seemed to ask many of the questions over and over, in slightly different variations, or slightly different scenarios.
I was expecting this type of thing to start being implemented in pretty short order, but maybe they had enough bad feedback that they put it on hold and decided to bide their time until the sheeple were a little more complacent. It would seem that they're either getting a little more bold, or just think that the time is a little riper now.
They can already track cars, and other technology can (and will) be used for the same thing as the license plate tracking scheme.
EDIT:
"... catch fugitive illegal immigrants..." LOL. Like they catch them now.
Too true. +, this cancellation is like a fellation of the truth. A couple of cars will be involved in underwear or shoe bomb level false flaglettes and bang, back on, see we told you so etc.
It's what David Icke very accurately called the totalitarian tiptoe...
ori
Yeah, this 'cancellation' is bullshit.
How can they cancel something that's already happened? They already have databases full of red light cameras and speed cameras. They already have databases of checkpoint cameras and general surveillance cameras. They already go around mall parking lots every Christmas (I don't get the significance of doing it at Christmas, other than the lots are a little fuller), they already have license plate cameras built into every cop car on the road.
Do you really believe they don't cross reference all this information?
If anything they should stop the DHS from doing this as a cost cutting measure. Just grant them access to the NSA's, or CIA'S, or FBI's, or Stasi's, or Secret Service's already existing systems. Save a buck.
Replace "cancels" with "delays" and you've got an accurate headline.
Yep..... It "sure" seems like there are plenty of cameras at EVERY intersection. Tracking devices built in every car. Tracking in phones........
I wish they had toilet cams. I'd give them a screen-full of what I think about all this.
That's fine for newer cars but there's still a lot of gun toting Americans driving around in older models, and that presents a problem. Fact is, these bastards won't stop until they can radio chip us at birth, ideally with an auto destruct option if you ever decide to go off grid.
Agree, illegal immigrants is humor of the day candidate.
Beautifully said, KickIce.
The question is this: How long wil Joe and Jane American obey and revere their abusers?
Thank you sir.
DCRB re "catch fugitive illegal immigrants" :
If they caught all the illegal immigrants then they wouldn't be able to do more stuff under the guise of "catching fugitive illegal immigrants". That is how all this stuff works. If things were already perfect then they would have no good stuff left to promise for the future. And that is why, no matter how many laws they make, no matter how many fees are charged, no matter how many liberties are stolen, things remain crap. The instant they give you what you want, they have to think of something else. The instant they give you what you want, they can no longer use it as a bargaining chip. That is why the "excuses" ( or should I say "reasons" because they don't "excuse" anything! ) are irrelevant.
Ooooh, poor weak govt can't do stuff because they don't have enough laws, money or control. Bullshit! They've got enough to do whatever needs doing. Everything else is theft. If something is broken then it is because they want it to be broken.
Placative propaganda.
I feel better already.....nothing will change until DC looks like Kiev....
Of course my 3 year old will be helping write "NO CONSENT" with a big red crayon the next time I see a ballot just in case a more peaceful option has a path forward....
In my wildest dreams, writing No Consent on your ballot would provide a peaceful change of power. But, as it is, I suspect you are right... in which case, No Consent may act as a political clarifying agent, and kickoff, by presenting the elite and .gov with an acute political crisis...
Perhaps it will give rank and file military and police something to hang their hat on, and they will refuse to attack peaceful protestors marching on Washington to restore their rights and Constitutional governance after the election...
Assuming success at the polls, that is...
DHS License Plate Tracking 2.0 in 3...2...1...
< By "cancelled" they mean transferred to the black budget NSA area.
< By "cancelled" they mean REALLY cancelled.
ALL 57 STATES
FUKU OBMA
HOPE & CHANGE EXP 11/2016
Hope expired 01/2009, if not decades earlier.
Change ... well fuck that.
Gone, but not forgotten, just implemented in secret.
exactly. there is probably some head scratching going on up at head quarters about this one. "why did we even bother to float this idea past the serfs? we are going to do it anyway, so who had the brilliant idea of acting like we needed their consent?"
Fuck you NSA DHS CIA TSA and BHO ... you group of dictatorial cunts in DC need to fricken be Kiev'd.
That goes for the DNC and the GOP too, not to mention OFA.
Cocksuckers. If somebody isn't causing a problem, pay them no attention. And by causing a problem, I mean that there should be a victim or at least a potential victim involved here, not somebody makes your panties bind up in response to the sand that you just shoved in your vaginas.
in reality it has very little to do with illegal immigration, and a whole lot to do with tracking each and every one of us and our movements. The illegal immigration angle was probably a way to get republicans on board. Since bush left office and its now a democrat doing it, many republicans have taken to pretending they care about freedom and privacy, so perhaps this was a way for them to look past those issues. "well, sure, if its fer cathin them messicans we gotta do it" Now, by no means am I saying we should just let who ever manages to sneak into the country stay here and leech off the american tax payer( we already have too many americans doing that), but more invasions of our privacy and 4th amendment violations arent the way to do it.
These are all just stalking horses--I'm sure they haven't realized the unconstitutionality of these plans, they just know-now-they have to approach it differently.
Constitution? A speed bump to statist objectives.
How did debt become something good?
It became an asset on banker's balance sheets.
How do we destroy the banks?
Convince people to withdraw everything and to start producing their own necessities. Or just wait. They'll destroy themselves. Their business model is not consistent with physical reality.
"How did debt become something good?"
Once you get around the moral issue of ripping off your creditors, spending the money, and not paying it back it's all good.
Free homes. Free education. Free home rentals if the bank ever gets a wild hair and evicts you. House full of free shit. The sky's the limit.
Some old school crazy fucker is still trying to pay his bills, and the costs can be passed along to him. What could go wrong.
That's one way, EV - you whimp.
Here's another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRICFUJlH-U
How do we destroy the banks?
STOP USING THEIR PRODUCTS!
And we have the ability to do that. It's just that people either hate the tools that allow them to avoid slave money (Bitcoin) or idolize and hoard their tools rather than using them (silver and gold).
@Fogey
Never a borrower nor a lender be if you can avoid it. BUT if you want to start a business or are unable to buy something for example a home I don't think all debt is bad it has enabled many to live better lives. What is bad however...
"Usury is the ancient sin of charging inflated interest rates sure to ruin the borrowers."
nt
The lapdog media concentrates on the "...it's a PRIVATE COMPANY (gasp! horror!) keeping information.
As if governments doing it were somehow acceptable to them.
In our corporatist state, private company and government is merely a legal distinction.
But read the MSM article: they say next-to-nothing about whether this is "right" or "wrong", ethical, acceptable, privacy-infringing or what. It's all about an "evil private corporation" collecting info.
If it were NSA doing it directly, they wouldn't say a word. Fighting "terrorists", right?
"The national license-plate recognition database, which would draw data from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, would help catch fugitive illegal immigrants..."
lol...right...because fugitives always give their "real wanted" names when registering a vehicle and would never dream of stealing a tag for a night out on the town.
Makes perfect sense ;-)
It's like the interior border checkpoints. They'll claim it is for catching illegal immigrants, but it will be used as a general "crime" fighting tool. Last I checked, which was a few years ago, those interior checkpoints were less effective at catching illegal immigrants on a man hour basis than actually patrolling the border, but they accounted for 35% of the drug seizures that the BP made. In other words, those interior checkpoints are defacto general crime checkpoints, despite the fact that the SCOTUS has ruled that general crime checkpoints are illegal.
Anybody think that tracking license plates will be used any differently?
The powers of the government's courts have to be reined in too. They are now making laws.
A lot like any public safety checkpoint these days. Its for your own safety!...lol.
The term used to be...highwaymen...meaning a common thief preying on people passing by them on the road, now they have badges to compliment their gun.
Whoopsie, no seatbelt...that'll be a hundred bucks, have a nice day. Whats this? You have a tailight out, improper and/or non-functioning equipment...seventy five bucks, we accept Visa or Mastercard, ya know?
Nothing but thieves, under the guise of being "public servants".
...which is why the people should always be armed.
Sir, have you been drinking?
Do illegals have to pay the fines too? I'm sure they'll get right on that.
The NSA already has this technology in place. When DHS made the announcement of a national license plate tracking system, the NSA told the DHS "keepa yours hands off." So the DHS will have to find another worthless project to justify steering a phone number sized (area code included) contract to a company owned by Washington insiders.
I just got done building a network to handle an LPR system for a parking garage fee enforcement (Yes, I am an enabler of the surveillance state). LPR is already in place for many cities around CA. It is planned, and/or in pilot on bridges around the Bay Area. It is already in many patrol vehicles, and at some intersections (aside from red light cameras). If you are parked on a city street, your plate is being run, when a police car drives past.
A large fast food chain is doing an LPR pilot for their drive-thru.
RFID is the next step.
New RFID credit cards coming soon and long term goal a cashless society.
I think that's already here. Most new cards are NFC enabled. I'm putting everything into a faraday cage.
LOL are you worried about Iran's Navy?
JK faraday cages are something to at least know about it would be a real mess if an EMP did somehow penetrate our defenses.
ID Cards in China: Your Worst Nightmare [30c3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZ2FB574JY (39:38)
catch illegal immigrants, lulz
All of the government sponsored surveillance would be more palatable if the data was freely accessible to the people who are paying for it, that being the public. If we could track government officials and workers as they "as they go through life', I might be okay with them tracking me. I'll show you mine if you show me yours...
I like that idea! Lets track the oligarchs and politicians as they jet around to their secret meetings and record their conversations as they make secret deals. And make them all public for us to review.
They work for us.
ed: reigning them in >> reining it in
A very common error. Spellcheck-dependency? Whatever happened to literacy?
Neigh! It went away when people stopped reading books.
LOL, just hoarsing around?
My kids have their noses in books. Spooky, funny, mystery, it keeps the mind active. I was always a book hawk in my youth. The "Great Brain" series comes to mind.
noguano
Regarding your avatar. I love that album.
We traded it for twitteracy.
Cancelled like I have a bridge to sell. LOL
"Only guillotines can cancel anything."
DHS quoted "We've decided to skip the license plate thing and go right for dog collars."
That would take shooting people's dogs to a whole new level.
It works exceptionally well in the UK. It´s called Automatic Number Plate Recognition. No tags, just cameras and software that extracts the number plate info. It helps that vehicle number plates are tightly regulated, only a few design variants are allowed. Over 14 millions ¨hits¨ a day on the ANPR system. All permanently recorded.
the problem with that in the usa is that they would need the cooperation of state agencies of which at least half hate the current fed gub more than i do.
Having realised that they can just use the NSA system
that license plate system would be redundant. they will just put gps chips in all the cars and track by satellite.
@buzzsaw
Sure will especially if obummer wins the appeal - if not I bet they will find another way around it like using the NSA or a Constitutional Amendment.
"This week, the Obama administration will fight this decision in the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in an attempt to say that probable cause is enough to justify warrant-less surveillance of citizens identified by law enforcement – whether local or federal.
Statements from Obama’s lawyers include: “Requiring a warrant and probable cause before officers may attach a GPS device to a vehicle, which is inherently mobile and may no longer be at the location observed when the warrant is obtained, would seriously impede the government’s ability to investigate drug trafficking, terrorism, and other crimes. Law enforcement officers could not use GPS devices to gather information to establish probable cause, which is often the most productive use of such devices. Thus, the balancing of law enforcement interests with the minimally intrusive nature of GPS installation and monitoring makes clear that a showing of reasonable suspicion suffices to permit use of a ‘slap-on’ device like that used in this case.”
This, just like observers in the news rooms will simply go top secret black budget. There are plenty of news organizations, auto manufacturers, and other corporate entities that will assuredly play ball for the right incentives. Nothing has been cancelled, the agenda will move forward as planned...........
They don't need it, they have something better.
exactly. they have cell phone records, car phone records, onstar, gps. they don't need no steenking state issued license plate. it will be a felony to disable onboard gps someday.
Ya, just like they cancelled and stopped TIA
Information Awareness Officehttp://www.cryptogon.com/?p=43072
They'll just switch it back to the nsa and do it on the sly.. Black sedans cruising the streets with license plate trackers wanting to know what you're thinking. Outcry over g'ment goons in news rooms was same thing. It'll just be done another way. Somewhere there is a very black heart beating promoting tyranny any way it can.
Want to catch illegal immigrants? Come to Los Angeles and pick up anyone mowig a lawn or loitering around Home Depot. No racial profiling involved. LOL
In Canada: "OPP First in Ontario to Target Suspended Drivers Through Enhanced Licence Plate Recognition Program"
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1278199/opp-first-in-ontario-to-target-s...
We had DHS basicslly brought online and run by Chertoff and Lieberman - both Orthodox Jews primarily loyal to Israel.
Israel companies built the nsa's networks, and Obama signs a secret agreement early in his first term to give the raw data to Israel, regardless of us counter intelligence assessments regarding aggressive Israeli spying.
Thank goodness for the AIPAC crowd the word "antisemite" retains so much magick as a wildly overused token.
It stops people from seing what is directly in front of them.
The Patriots kept us out of Syria once, but they won't be able to outflank the Zio-traitors a second time. And DHS and Treasury and State and NSA are all hijacked.
You do have to admire their sheer, outsized dominance.
Hell, I'd be inclined to join 'em. All "America" is really is a thing that takes a third of what you work for while constantly billing you for shit you ain't ordered.
Kidding aside, all I really object to is the Zios comfort with needless killing, but our own WASPocracy did more or less the same.
I will welcome the rule of the space aliens the Jesuits will soon reveal to the heathens.
Seems to me this "trial balloon launching" (first proposing war on Syria, then the license plate reading, then the FCC monitors in newsrooms), is either designed to measure resistance against stupid proposals, or used as cover so we'll be riled up against whatever the "idea" of the week is, while they're actually doing something much worse in the background (like TPP).
And just for the record. I will NOT ride in the same care with Greta Van Sustern and I damn sure don't want to be anywhere near she hits the ignition. Of the car that is
Boy,
You guys are really gonna be upset when you find out we've already been nano-chipped.
At this point, all that matters is how many you'll take with you when you go.
Keep the numbers high enough and your children and grandkids may have a chance.
Clapper told them to say they cancelled their plans.
Abolish the DHS, TSA, CIA, DEA, ATF, FBI, NSA, Federal Reserve, they're all tyrannical traitors to the people. Hang them for treason against the people.
Long Bicycles.
Longer commute
The more holy the NSA becomes with each press release, the more I believe it is a Star Wars vaporware entity.
"the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government,” she said."
This is a massive red herring. In a fascist state, there is no difference between the government and the corporations; they are on the same team working together.
"This is what we can achieve if we are informed and keep the pressure on."
Thanks for the article, Mike. How exactly does one apply said pressure in these situations? How does one participate?
“It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise, and the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government,” she said
Yeah, a company that owes its very existince to the gvt could never be corerced or bribed to share information. These Nazi's just wont give up will they???
I don't know whether to stand and fight, or burry my head in the sand and party like it's 1999.
I don't know why you people are so upset about this. License plate tracking is exactly how they caught the Tsarnaev brothers and prevented the bombing of the Boston Marathon. The DHS knows what it is doing, you can trust them.
I'd like to set up a private network that tracks only government employees and their families. Maybe I can issue an RFP for that.
They're just going to implement it without an announcement for people to be outraged over.
I expect them just to do it and lie about it.
I have not read any of the other comments yet.
I was pulled over for speeding by a Pennsylvania state trooper.
Did not need license or registration.
Already in the database.
let off with a warning, new signage and all.
This is already being done.
'
'
'
Oh-hh-hh-hh Fuck Ya!
It's being done. Or will be. Why? Because I and you know it will be. It's not the conspiratorial nuts anymore thinking about this shit, telling us it's coming, it's the guys who are doing it to us, telling us they're not going to do it us.
"Back to slee-ee-eep!…"
This was a trial balloon. Do you really think they give a fuck about our outrage? It's the Overton Window all over again. Look it up.
They've had this capability for years now. They just want to bring it out from the shadows, so they can use it to the full extent that they've already planned to use it.
•J•
V-V