That Drone in the Sky Could Be Tracking Your Car

""The Flock Safety drone, specifically, are flying LPR cameras as well," Rahul Sidhu , Vice President of Aviation at Flock Safety, recently told a group of potential law enforcement customers interested in drone-as-first-responder (DFR) programs. The integration of Flock Safety's flagship ALPR technology with its Aerodome drone equipment is a police surveillance combo poised to elevate the privacy threats to civilians caused by both of these invasive technologies as drone adoption expands."

"Communities must demand restrictions on how local police use drones ALPRs, let alone a dangerous hybrid of the two. Otherwise, we can soon expect that a drone will fly to any call for service and capture sensitive location information about every car in its flight path, capturing more ALPR data to add to the already too large databases of our movements."

"ALPR systems typically rely on cameras that have been fixed along roadways or attached to police vehicles. These cameras capture the image of a vehicle, then use artificial intelligence technology to log the license plate, make, model, color, and other unique identifying information, like dents and bumper stickers. This information is usually stored on the manufacturer's servers and often made available on nationwide sharing networks to police departments from other states and federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

Police departments are deploying drones equipped with automated license plate readers (ALPRs), turning airborne cameras into tools for tracking vehicle movements. Flock Safety is integrating its ALPR technology with Aerodome drone hardware, enabling drones to capture license plates and other identifying vehicle details. Major public-safety companies are expanding drone offerings as drone-as-first-responder programs grow. ALPR systems capture license plate, make, model, color, and distinguishing marks, then store data on manufacturer servers and share it across nationwide networks, including federal agencies. Communities face heightened privacy risks as drones can collect extensive location data and expand ALPR databases.

Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation