Catherine Crump: The small and surprisingly dangerous detail the police track about you

[Skidmore]

This is a TED talk. I don't know how to embed the video, but I think this is something worth watching.

http://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_crump_the_small_and_surprisingly_dangerous_detail_the_police_track_about_you#

[demmiblue]

1. Video:

[Skidmore]

2. Thanks. How did you do that?

[demmiblue]

3. You're wlcome!

I just went to YouTube and typed in her name to see if the video was available in that format.

DU can only embed YouTube and Vimeo videos, iirc.

[Skidmore]

4. Duh. I'll remember to do that next time.

I thought it was something exclusive to TED format.

[Brickbat]

5. What is it?

[Skidmore]

7. It is a video of a talk about

how police track your location and the technology involved. Watch it if you want but I'm not reproducing the talk for anyone. The lady does the job well on her own.

[GoneFishin]

10. Detailed tracking information of all cars based on large numbers of mostly unoticed automated licens

plate scanners.

[Brickbat]

12. Thanks. I have neither time nor bandwidth to watch long videos.

[Romulox]

6. Now DU does clickbait video links? If the point is worth making, post it. In words. nt

[Skidmore]

8. Clickbait?

Do you know what TED is? If you want to watch it do so. Some one helped embed the video after I said that I didn't know how.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

9. I think the point was that at least a short description of just what the 'small detail' was would be

a useful idea.

And, btw, maybe this should be over in the Video and Multimedia forum?

[GoneFishin]

11. Detailed tracking information of all cars using large numbers of mostly unoticed license plate

scanners which permanently collect and store your whereabouts based on your car tags.

[Hutzpa]

13. That's on the OP in who I'm a bit disappointed

Skidmore ought to know better.

:smdh:

[malaise]

19. Better than what

The laziness at DU amazes me some days

[Hutzpa]

21. And the ineptness does surprises me too. nt

[snappyturtle]

14. K&R thank you Skidmore for posting this Ted Talk.

I got up on the right side of the bed this morning. Apparently, some here did not.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. Would that be the reason why I get so many unknown numbers

called to my I-Phone? Do they have a way to track a call even when you don't pick up the line?

[jeff47]

16. No calling is required.

Your phone contacts the cell towers to say "I'm Here!!" very frequently. That allows the phone company to send calls, texts, etc to your phone.

If your phone didn't do that, the company wouldn't know where to send the phone call.

This data is not private. An overly-broad 1979 SCOTUS decision declared this information to be a run-of-the-mill business record, making it legal for the government to access it without a warrant. And legal for your phone company to sell it to anyone who wants to pay for it.

The clickbait...er...subject at hand is about automated license plate readers. You've got a unique ID stamped on the outside of your car, and shockingly enough it is readable without a warrant. Just like you going to a street corner and shouting "Get your meth here! Buy meth from me! Great prices!" does not require a warrant to hear.

[jeff47]

17. I think the thing that surprises me the most

is the people that seem to believe a government-issued unique ID stamped on the outside of your car in large letters was somehow private.

[hunter]

20. Yeah, but in the past there was no automated equipment sucking up all the data...

... and stashing it away in a giant easily searched database.

When I started driving states weren't even talking to one another or insurance companies about simple traffic tickets.

You could also cross the border into and out of Mexico without a license plate scan.

Law enforcement let a lot of petty stuff pass by simply because the system was not automated. They'd have to radio in a license plate number, the local police clerk would have to look the number up in a paper book which only included the worst out-of-state suspects and was outdated the moment it was delivered, and all that fuss was simply too much bother for minor traffic offenses, much less for tracking anyone.

I've always hated automobiles. The "freedom" they offer is an illusion. They trap people into an economic system that is becoming increasingly "papers please" fascist, and the worrisome aspect of this is that people seem to be unaware that the devices they supposedly own are quietly reporting their activities to unknown authorities and commercial interests.

The way our current cell phone system works is equally insidious.

[jeff47]

22. It wasn't as easy, but they were still 100% trackable.

Lots of people seem to forget that constantly announcing your presence didn't make your presence private. It's just easier to hear now.

[Tace]

18. Retina Scanner That Can ID People From Their Rear-View Mirrors During Traffic Stops

http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/iris-scanner-identifies-a-person-40-feet-away-150410.htm

Iris Scanner Identifies a Person 40 Feet Away

snip

In the realm of law enforcement, iris recognition could be used to identify suspects at long range in various lighting conditions. The system can even be used to capture images through reflections in a mirror.

The CMU team recently posted a video successfully testing the system in a typical traffic stop scenario. Using the long-range iris scanner, the system was able to identify the driver of a vehicle by capturing an image of the eye via the side-view mirror. You can see the results below.