Vehicle registration plates may be automatically scanned with equipment, mountable on vehicles, that identifies an image characteristic of a registration plates, takes a photograph, and reads and records the registration number.[1] Such scanning may be done by government [1][2] or private industry.[1][3][4] Private industry collects this information for profit through, directly or indirectly, activities such as consumer profiling and repossession.[1][4] Companies have collected over 1 billion scans of registration plates in the United States,[4] stored in multiple national databases.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) read from dedicated short-range communication transponders voluntarily obtained by citizens for electronic toll collection enable recording of time and location data at toll crossings.[7] Scanning equipment has also been installed at additional, non-toll locations,[8][5] enabling further data collection. Transponders have also been hacked, allowing reading and tracking by unauthorized parties.[9][10]
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a report on license plate tracking, finding that the vast majority of scans collected are the vehicles of innocent persons.[11][3][12]
