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Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

notmyplate.com

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Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#211

Post by londons_explore »

arethuza wrote: post #98
dagw wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those cameras are placed in such a way and have a low enough resolution that it is impossible to read the license plates from the public data.

Fair point, you can almost read number plates on some of the cameras that are close to roads. Presumably the cameras are capturing data at a higher resolution than those public images?

I'd bet with a bit of data processing on that video feed (subpixel aligning and stacking all the frames, using the prior knowledge that you know the numberplate isn't changing as the car drives down the road), you'd be able to read them.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#212

Post by gus_massa »

n4r9 wrote: post #33
londons_explore wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's a bargain, take me up on the offer then.

It absolutely is a bargain. I don't have the money or time to risk but I strongly recommend that you start a company, build a website and advertise your service to the world. I'm assuming you'll also deal with any regulatory and data protection issues, get permission from local authorities etc... . You've found an astonishing gap in the market, it seems.

> get permission from local authorities

For some reason I guess the business plan was about forgetting to get the permits...

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#213

Post by jedberg »

someweirdperson wrote: post #32

Finally. Publish it all. Tracking of every vehicle, visible for everyone. It has been that way with aircraft for a long time. Pilots, however, are such a minority that noone really cares. Now that everyone is impacted, regulation might get updated (or someone might spend the time to identify existing regulation that prohibits this), and that would extend to other vehicles than those with wheels.

> Finally. Publish it all. Tracking of every vehicle, visible for everyone.

I'd have no problem with this as long as there was a flip side that said that I get a cryptographically secure feed of verified identities of everyone who accesses my data. Including if law enforcement accesses it.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#214

Post by beej71 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #80
kleiba wrote: post #7

As long as privacy is not a granted right that enables you to sue offenders, there's not much you can do. The EU has at least started to realize the issue but giving the speed of technology vs. the pace of administration, it might be a losing battle.

The use of dash cams is effectively illegal in Austria on privacy grounds: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/152064/are-dash-c...

This is a very foreign concept to me in the US. Even though I do think we have a right to privacy from the government, there's something to be said for allowing private citizens to record whatever they want in public.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#215

Post by generalizations »

londons_explore wrote: post #104
arethuza wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the computing and communication parts of a project like this are by far the easiest bits. Weatherproofing the camera and solar panels, getting permission to get them installed, actually installing them (working at heights over busy roads) and then maintaining them would be pretty expensive. You might also have to pay rent to whoever owns gantries, and what about locations where there aren't any existing gan…

You wouldn't get permission. Just walk with a phone+solar panel in a weatherproof box. Either use magnets or zip ties to tie to the the pedestrian rail of a bridge overlooking a freeway. Done. I would likely order some chinaphone motherboards only - for example[1] - without the screen+case+accessories you save ~50% on the retail price. They're then not valuable enough to be worth stealing either. If it's a small road…

Love the style, but wouldn't those boxes be conspicuous? It only takes a few observant people to notice a couple before they spot the pattern and see them everywhere. Then it seems like the game would be up.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#216

Post by fsckboy »

russdill wrote: post #158
bambax wrote: post #70

The DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) had revolving licence plates. A cursory Google search comes up with some shady websites that sell similar tech, but it would be a nice DIY project to make a licence plate screen that can be changed on the fly (e-ink based maybe). Has anyone tried it?

A really good hack to get around the fact that motor vehicles are by law easily traceable is to...just take mass transit.

face recognition is also a thing, though perhaps not as publicly accessible as a license plate

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#217

Post by [deleted] »

pc86 wrote: post #71
someweirdperson wrote: post #32

Finally. Publish it all. Tracking of every vehicle, visible for everyone. It has been that way with aircraft for a long time. Pilots, however, are such a minority that noone really cares. Now that everyone is impacted, regulation might get updated (or someone might spend the time to identify existing regulation that prohibits this), and that would extend to other vehicles than those with wheels.

It's not even that pilots are a minority and that's why no one cares. It's that most air travel is commercial, and nobody cares if someone can see where exact UAL123 is at this moment. Nobody feels bad for some millionaire's private jet getting tracked, nobody feels bad for some expensive charter plane with $15k tickets getting tracked, and the only thing left is small GA aircraft, which nobody care about at all. The…

[deleted]

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#218

Post by squeaky-clean »

cronix wrote: post #117
dagw wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll either have to do this guerrilla style, in which case solar panels will be far too obvious. Or you'll have to apply for all relevant permits, in which case you'll never get them.

Permits? We're not talking a solar farm to power a small device. There are a lot of trail cams that have solar built in, are very small, camouflaged, and motion activated with 20MP cameras for under $200.

A random solar powered android phone is found fastened to a bridge and you can be sure the police are going to look into it and take it down.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#219

Post by fsckboy »

bambax wrote: post #70

The DB5 in Goldfinger (1964) had revolving licence plates. A cursory Google search comes up with some shady websites that sell similar tech, but it would be a nice DIY project to make a licence plate screen that can be changed on the fly (e-ink based maybe). Has anyone tried it?

assuming the people here are not in general criminals, I'm not sure that committing a fake license plate crime is the best way to go about staying under the radar.

Re: Traffic cameras expose your location through parking apps

#220

Post by squeaky-clean »

orangepurple wrote: post #182
bobthepanda wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the issue with those who are homeless is that it essentially criminalizes living for people who cannot rent or own, and thus infringes on their liberties. There’s no right to hang up privately owned cameras in public.

I am imagining an army of homeless sitting at every intersection in the US holding surveillance cameras and getting paid by # of unique plates scanned per minute

Reminds me of the company that got homeless people to be 4g wifi hotspots at SXSW

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/03/13/148506762...

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