From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.

From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.

  • Shortstack@reddthat.comEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Alright! Dystopian nightmare timeline is a go!

    I especially like the part where cops are reported to heavily abuse these databases for personal agendas or to share with criminals. Truly ACAB

    This is a very good reason to maintain the appearance of neutrality while facing your local community

    This might even be an argument for putting those smoked opaque covers on your license plates even if it’s questionably legal. There’s more than a few people out there with definitely not legal smoked covers to the point you literally can’t read their plates unless you’re tailgating them, and cops don’t give a shit because nobody is ever pulled over for illegal mods. I’d wager that the cameras can’t read them either if you can’t at 10 yards

    • JoYo 🇺🇸@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      those covers do not effect license plate cameras.

      the only people this prevents from view6the numbers are pedestrians and other drivers.

    • qprimed@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I’d wager that the cameras can’t read them either if you can’t at 10 yards

      I might not take a bet on that. most license plates use reflective paint to aid in this. it would surprise me if paint and cameras are not tuned to at least one non human-visible wavelength.

      polarized plate covers, specialized spray coatings, etc may work, but I am not betting my freedom on it. time to go bond style and get rotating plates.

      • notfromhere@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        What about a thin e-ink layer plus led layer display that fits over the plate and would block the plate while displaying a digital plate over it? May need a few rounds of evolution there but might work

        • qprimed@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          3 months ago

          very cool idea. they will counter with RFID or turn the plate into the equiv of a qrcode. store a cryptographically secure hash of the plate number and you pretty much put an end to that, no?. if I cant get a crypto signed version of your plate, flag the the car as a scofflaw (or worse) and track it as it travels in other ways. I think we are pretty much screwed without a change in laws.

          with anti-women laws in some of these states, this is terrifying.

          • notfromhere@lemmy.mlEnglish
            0·
            3 months ago

            We’re probably decades away from them countering with anything meaningful like that unless large swaths of people start doing it.

      • Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        3 months ago

        I’ve heard there are hyper-reflective stickers you can put on/near the plate that basically blind a traffic camera’s view when trying to read it