Though rebuffed before, DHS is coming back again for access to ALPRS databases — automated license plate reader system databases.
Their previous attempts to create a national database which tracks where everyone has been recorded as traveling were panned by privacy advocates. This time DHS declares this won’t be a problem, and so propose the standard dodge we’re surprised they did not use before – private tracking. Many things which are proscribed to Big Brother are perfectly legal if tracked and compiled commercially, never mind that government regulations are specifically crafted to enable select businesses to compile and immense amount of private data. Having enabled compilation of such data, the feds say “look, we didn’t compile anything”, and then simply purchase access to those databases. That is now what they propose for the license plate scanning tools, which don’t fall under any particular regulatory structure to limit how said data might be used at all.