Did you know that cameras have been installed across the roads of America that can capture an image of every vehicle's tag, read the tag number, and then store that data for others to use in tracking your movements? It sounds like some crazy conspiracy theory, but it's true.
This technology is used by both government and private industry, and it amounts to real-time location monitoring of every vehicle on our roads. These automated license plate readers (ALPRs for short) can be mounted to electrical poles, freestanding trailers parked on the roadside, on police cars or on vehicles belonging to "Big Data" companies like TLOxp, which brags about having over 100 BILLION data points in their databases.
Here in Mississippi, they are found on interstates, U.S. highways, state highways, county roads, at subdivision entrances, and more. From experience, there are multiple cameras located at certain county and city limit lines in the Jackson metropolitan area, and along the roads that traverse our Mississippi Gulf Coast counties.
These cameras first capture an image of the tag, then use optical character recognition to turn that image into computer-readable data. That data is then transmitted into a database, which matches up with vehicle registration data from across the country. Once that data is matched, law enforcement or the Big Data company then know where the vehicle is and to whom that vehicle belongs. They can and do monitor all of our comings and goings that way, effectively tracking the movements of all citizens, whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing or not.
Several states have laws on the books preventing the storage of this data past a short period of time, or preventing this data from being shared outside of law enforcement agencies. Mississippi currently does not. The only law in Mississippi that limits the use of ALPRs prohibits them from being used by municipalities to enforce traffic laws, in effect banning red light and speeding cameras. Other use by law enforcement is fair game in Mississippi, and is becoming more and more common.
Absent new laws being passed this upcoming legislative session to stop the rampant use of these cameras, there isn't much we as citizens can do to keep from being constantly surveilled. But, it's better to know that it is happening than to not know at all.