Beware license plate scanners . . .

[Spencer]

I know that the NHLA worked very hard to prevent this kind of thing from happening in NH . . .

'Big Brother' might have seen your car

Web Posted: 10/10/2007 01:28 AM CDT

Peggy Fikac
Express-News

AUSTIN — Did you drive on Interstate 35 in early September? Where were you going, and why? How many people were in the car with you? And by the way, how many people live in your house?

The Texas Department of Transportation wants to know — and a company it hired may have videotaped your license plate, then sent a survey to your home to find out.

The survey is being done in the name of sound transportation planning. Officials say the method has been used before in Texas and elsewhere. But it has some feeling uncomfortable and others crying "Big Brother."

Alliance Transportation Group Inc., under a $781,588.53 contract with the state, mailed about 150,000 surveys to homes containing an explanation startling to some: "You are being asked to participate in these efforts because the license plate of a vehicle registered in (your) name was randomly recorded" during a highway trip.

"It almost feels sneaky," said Alison Unger, an Austin communications professional who got the survey after traveling to San Antonio for Rosh Hashanah.
Being watched

The Texas Department of Transportation set up 21 cameras in the following locations and is asking drivers it videotaped to fill out a survey on conditions on the Interstate 35 corridor.

Click the thumbnail image to see where the cameras are located.

She's got no ill will toward TxDOT but is concerned about whether her personal information will be protected. She said she likely wouldn't answer the survey.

Some were outraged about the survey after being videotaped by cameras tucked into orange barrels at 21 locations outside metro areas on Interstate 35 and nearby highways from north of Laredo through the San Antonio area to north of Dallas — some 450 miles.

Similar surveys are expected next year in the Houston, Galveston, Beaumont and Port Arthur areas, although with changes incorporated to reflect concerns expressed by drivers

"This is Big Brother-ish," said Sal Costello, a fierce critic of TxDOT who founded the TexasTollParty.com to fight the way toll roads were planned by the agency. "It is an invasion of privacy."

Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said, "It's one thing to study traffic patterns, but to ask all this personal information of people makes you wonder why they are doing it. And if anybody ever believes that the government is going to throw it (the information) away, I have a bridge to sell them.

"This is more than Orwell ever imagined," he said.

The survey said responses will be kept confidential and no personal information will be retained.

TxDOT spokeswoman Gaby Garcia said the information won't be shared or sold and will be disposed of in a secure fashion. This is the first time the state has conducted a comprehensive transportation survey on the entire Interstate 35 corridor, and the information is vital to planning, she said.

"With the heavy traffic demand already on I-35 — one of the state's busiest interstate corridors — this survey will help us better forecast future demand and needed improvements to I-35," Garcia said.

She noted that the survey is voluntary and that people don't have to participate or answer all the questions. Since the survey was mailed about three weeks ago after the Sept. 12-13 license-plate videotaping, about 3,000 people have responded, she said.

About 200 have called a toll-free number included with the survey, with most asking about its purpose and "a few callers unhappy that they received a survey," she said.

Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican who has worked to stem TxDOT's drive toward privately run toll roads, said something else caught her eye, especially in the wake of an agency campaign that promotes toll roads: "With TxDOT continuing to spill forth that they have no money to build highways, I find it very interesting they have a lot of money to do mailings to 150,000 people and ad campaigns of $8 (million) and $9 million."

Civil engineering Professor Chandra Bhat of the University of Texas at Austin's Center for Transportation Research said such surveys have been used in numerous other states.

The downside with a survey based on videotaping license plates, Bhat said, is that the data quality may not be as good and there can be a negative public perception: "Uncle Sam sneaking up, essentially."

Garcia said the agency plans to let drivers know the survey ahead of time the next time.

"It was by no means meant to be sneaky," Garcia said. "Lesson learned."

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA101007.01A.highwaycameras.34a61a0.html

[Puke]

That's why I don't take such.
Either that or I just completely fake the answers.
"I have 48 adults that live in this household."

[d_goddard]

Automated license plate scanners are illegal in NH as of July 16, 2007

http://generalcourt.org/bills/2007/sb41

Note, they can still use scanners to automate ticketing at toll booths.
But they cannot set up a "random checkpoint" and scan every plate on the road.

It would be nice to run a "shadow ad" in San Antonio: "Tired of big brother scanning your plates? Check out the Free State Project!"

[grasshopper]

   A nice blacked out truck at night with a pusher bumper works great on those there sand barrels, just keep the speed under 40 when you smash them.
  Of coarseI've never done such things!

[Raineyrocks]

I did read the article I'm just a little confused as to what a plate scanner is though.  Is it one of those thing they put on the side of the road and it blinks your speed?

We've had them in 3 different places in Campton so far since September and now and then we've seen cops hiding somewhere close to these blinking speed things so they can nail people who are over the speed limit.  Also when I pass one it actually is off by 4 mph.   to the good though so if my speedometer says I'm going 37, the sign will blink 33.

[J’raxis 270145]

That's why I don't take such.
Either that or I just completely fake the answers.
"I have 48 adults that live in this household."

This being a state on the Mexican border, that answer would probably get your house raided by ICE.

[d_goddard]

I did read the article I'm just a little confused as to what a plate scanner is though.  Is it one of those thing they put on the side of the road and it blinks your speed?

No; those are old.
Plate scanners are new... they read each plate number as the cars pass by, check government databases to see if any of them are "wanted", and alert the authorities as necessary.

Pretty Orwellian, if you ask me.

Several states are rolling them out. But not NH!!
If you appreciate this, consider thanking Rep. Neal Kurk and Rep. Joel Winters, they pretty much made it happen.
neal.kurk (at) leg.state.nh.us

[JonM]

I did read the article I'm just a little confused as to what a plate scanner is though.  Is it one of those thing they put on the side of the road and it blinks your speed?

We've had them in 3 different places in Campton so far since September and now and then we've seen cops hiding somewhere close to these blinking speed things so they can nail people who are over the speed limit.  Also when I pass one it actually is off by 4 mph.   to the good though so if my speedometer says I'm going 37, the sign will blink 33.

My spedometer often disagrees with my GPS as to my speed.

[Pat McCotter]

In some jurisdictions (New Haven, CT; Boston, MA; etc) they are mounted on the police cars. A cop drives down the street or through a parking lot scanning all the plates on cars parked there. The scanner identifies the plate number and checks the database.

Bruce Schneier article on scanners.

[KBCraig]

Thanks for finding the article. I forwarded it to thenewspaper.com.

[Raineyrocks]

I did read the article I'm just a little confused as to what a plate scanner is though.  Is it one of those thing they put on the side of the road and it blinks your speed?

No; those are old.
Plate scanners are new... they read each plate number as the cars pass by, check government databases to see if any of them are "wanted", and alert the authorities as necessary.

Pretty Orwellian, if you ask me.

Several states are rolling them out. But not NH!!
If you appreciate this, consider thanking Rep. Neal Kurk and Rep. Joel Winters, they pretty much made it happen.
neal.kurk (at) leg.state.nh.us

Totally Orwellian then again what's not anymore!  Thanks for letting me know what they are.

[kola]

You may want to "disable" your license plate (and the stickers) so it can not be scanned.

,,,,,or have the car registered in another name. 



Kola

[Puke]

This being a state on the Mexican border, that answer would probably get your house raided by ICE.

Good point. Don't answer questionnaires then.

[kawi600]

Down here they run plate scanners around the city randomly and check against lists of people that havent paid fines so they can more effectively tow or boot your car. Nice guys.

[d_goddard]

Down here they run plate scanners around the city randomly and check against lists of people that havent paid fines so they can more effectively tow or boot your car.

That's a subtle hint.
It translates to: "get the hell out while you still can!"