Big Brother Is Watching

Mike Skater on Breitbart was interviewing a tech specialist this morning, discussing the pros and cons of technology, with the cons mostly related to privacy issues. The proliferation of Flock cameras, small automated license plate readers (ALPS), is troubling, as they are widely employed by law enforcement to scan passing vehicles and upload that information to a database. So at any given time, they can access where your vehicle has been and, in real time, where it’s going. Granted, a useful tool if your vehicle has been stolen, or a crime has been committed, and the perpetrator escaped in a vehicle. Unfortunately, the data is also being used to track movement across state lines to buy fireworks or marijuana that is illegal in the state of origin, allowing law enforcement to lie in wait for when the vehicle returns home. Kinda petty.  Unscrupulous law enforcement officers have also used it for personal use, such as tracking ex-spouses or girlfriends. Not cool. The other concern, particularly in anti-Second Amendment states, is that the data can be used to track vehicles that frequent gun stores or gun ranges, essentially providing de facto gun registration in states where it is illegal to keep a database of gun purchases and ownership. Also not cool, as the net is cast so wide that it ensnares significantly more law-abiding folks than the criminal element.  And down the rabbit hole we go: Vehicles present at a Trump rally, vehicles that go back and forth to Republican Party headquarters, vehicles at a Turning Point USA event, vehicles coming and going from a politician’s home or even the politician’s personal vehicle. You get the drift. And who exactly has access to this database? Then there’s human error. In one state, a murder was committed, and the getaway car’s license plate was incorrectly entered into the system. The mistake resulted in an innocent woman being aggressively pursued and stopped on the highway, removed from her vehicle, and arrested at gunpoint. The error was discovered, and she was sent on her way. Oops, sorry about that. But the original error was not corrected in the system, resulting in her being subjected to yet another traumatic traffic stop a week later. Yikes. Orwellian stuff. What could possibly go wrong? For any of you concerned that big brother is coming, fear not. He’s already here.