Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

haveibeenflocked.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 251 posts

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#171

Post by hibf »

tptacek wrote: post #10

Besides the obvious privacy concern: at the very least in my state (Illinois), it's not lawful for public bodies to disclose the license plate numbers read from ALPR cameras, so this data set is necessarily incomplete. But, give it a year or two, and you can replace this whole website with a black background and 72 point white bold text "YES".

You're right that the dataset is incomplete, but it contains searches done by police, not plates read by Flock.

The search logs are public record even when alpr data is not; quite a few come from IL.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#172

Post by hibf »

jeroenhd wrote: post #156
reactordev wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://deflock.me

That website is a bit misleading, their "worldwide" map includes ALL ALPR cameras, not just the ones operated by Flock or for-profit surveillance companies. The ones on their map near my location are all for automatic license plate recognition to enter parking garages. Not exactly the dystopian nightmare their homepage warned me about.

You assume those aren't logged and accessible by the government. They are.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#173

Post by potato3732842 »

pilingual wrote: post #20

Put up billboards around metros with a license plate reader that queries this database with each passing car and announce "White Tesla Model Y XYZ-1234 You've been focked for: Inv" What a sick society we live in.

That'd be a great place to test one's plate for legibility to the toll and speed cameras.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#174

Post by hibf »

Spooky23 wrote: post #142
thih9 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is assuming one travels exclusively by car. Bikes, public transport, or walking are not as easy to track using this system. Then again, these modes of transport are less popular in the US; I guess such a surveillance system is extra effective in the US because of that.

Not yet. Facical recognition in 2025 is where LPR was in 2010. As the cost of compute and wireless communications continues to drop, facial recognition will be prolific. There are more limitations with cameras, but AI will make it easy to backtrack movement to a place where they get a clean shot that can identify you. As an example, the transit authority in NYC Metro was able to plug existing security feeds from trai…

This automated already, and you don't need a face. Flock does it.

https://haveibeenflocked.com/news/reid

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#175

Post by potato3732842 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9
habinero wrote: post #2

I love these kinds of sites, since they're indistinguishable from honeypots. Sure, have my license plate and the information that I'm worried about being watched.

With no other identifying info, though, what can they do with a license plate number in isolation?

Flag you as being worth watching, or up your composite score by a point or whatever.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#176

Post by potato3732842 »

747fulloftapes wrote: post #79
pests wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some states, like Michigan, you can request owner information (including address) by a in-person SOS visit and $15 a plate. I've always thought this should be PII and shouldn't be allowed on reddit, for example, where PII is banned. Post a driver with plate in Michigan and you may have doxxed them.

This is intentionally not PII. You accept this burden when you decide to register a vehicle. Keep in mind you don't need to have a license plate or to register a vehicle to drive it only on private property. Your license plate is required to be readily visible so that it can be used to find out who the registered and, presumably, responsible party is. Consider if you skip out on paying for parking at a garage, where…

You can screech about "not a right" all you want but there's federal law (DDPA) that limits how easily states can reveal driver's PII. Usually a documented business purpose (i.e sending spam mail) is required.

This Michigan thing sounds like it walks right up to the line if not over it.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2721

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#177

Post by chzblck »

JimmyBiscuit wrote: post #133
chzblck wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no lots people can now see that I go to costco and publix.

Oh no youre one druggie friend (that you didnt know about having a drug addiction) that visits you sometimes got caught by the cops. Oh no they think youre their drug dealer since his license plate got recognized in your driveway a few times. Oh no they are kicking your door in with a search warrant and shoot your dog.

Don't need Flock to have that happen - https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-hears-case-fam...

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#178

Post by RobotCaleb »

dehrmann wrote: post #168
sp332 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In New Hampshire, we banned both public and private ALPRs. You can see on the map that the only ones are at toll booths. Those got explicit exemptions in the law.

Isn't that the state with license plates that say "live free or die?" Unless, of course, you have a moral objection to that statement, cf. Wooley v. Maynard.

I'm sure that's their state license plate motto regardless of your moral objection

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#179

Post by 9rx »

dehrmann wrote: post #168
sp332 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In New Hampshire, we banned both public and private ALPRs. You can see on the map that the only ones are at toll booths. Those got explicit exemptions in the law.

Isn't that the state with license plates that say "live free or die?" Unless, of course, you have a moral objection to that statement, cf. Wooley v. Maynard.

Free as in beer.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#180

Post by stackghost »

tptacek wrote: post #28
bigbuppo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because the records created on behalf of the government are held by a private enterprise doesn't mean they aren't government records.

Right, I agree. My point is that the FOIA laws of many states forbid disclosing the data this web page purports to surface.

[flagged]
Post reply on HN