by mapi
Leave it to a company that collects more than 150 million plate reads per month to bring public surveillance to our front door.
Rekor Systems “Open ALPR program” will allow homeowners to turn their video doorbells into license plate readers.
A Rekor Systems press release revealed their plans to turn 22 million smart homes into neighborhood license plate reader networks.
“Research firm Berg Insight reports that 63 million American homes will qualify as “smart” by as early as 2022. With the launch of our downloadable and cloud-based products, anyone can access affordable license plate reading in minutes — as well as obtaining access to advanced machine learning vehicle recognition that provides make, model and body type through our CarCheck API and Watchman,” said Robert Berman, President and CEO, Rekor.
Rekor Systems is going to great lengths to turn smart homes into neighborhood license plate reader networks.
“To entice suburban residents, it’s offering a steep price drop — from the $50 a month it charges businesses and law enforcement agencies to $5 a month, less than the price of a newspaper subscription.”
Rekor Systems also allows your neighbor to identify a limited number of vehicles for $99, $395 or $1995 a month.
Apparently using police ALPR’s to grid entire neighborhoods is not enough for Rekkor Systems.
“Part of the training for the ALPR systems, Chandler police officers are taught to “grid” neighborhoods during their downtime – systematically driving up and down every street in an area, indiscriminately scooping up information on vehicles.”
With “Watchman Home”, a homeowner could record their neighbor’s comings and goings in real-time and send them to Rekor Systems and law enforcement.
According to an article in WKYC Studios, consumers are using Open ALPR to find out when their children are home.
“[Consumers] use it for everything. To find out when their children are home. Some have second homes. they’re a couple hours away and they want to know who is on their property,” said Robert Berman, CEO of Rekor, offering examples of how his software is used.
Robert Berman’s claim that ALPR’s are being used to tell when someone’s children are home is almost as ludicrous as former NSA Director, James Clapper denying that the NSA was spying on Americans.
A CNET article revealed that homeowners could use Open ALPR to blacklist, racially profile or blackmail their neighbors.
“Watchman uses a whitelist/blacklist system, allowing customers to log plate numbers for cars that are approved to be near their homes or to warn them when a vehicle has been flagged as a potential threat is near.”
CNET went on to say that ALPR’s have been used to racially profile and blackmail people.
No longer are blacklists relegated to law enforcement and corporations, because with Open ALPR your video doorbell will allow neighbors to secretly blacklist African Americans, Hispanics and Muslims from the comfort of their living rooms.
CNET also warned that ALPR’s allow people to “see patterns of movement” of their neighbors.
“Even with just one ALPR set up in front of your house, it is enough to be able to learn about people — to see their patterns of movement, when they come down your street, at what time, what cars they drive — which is information that can be used to infer incredibly personal things about a person,” Matthew Guariglia, an Electronic Frontier Foundation policy analyst said.
Last year I wrote about three ALPR corporations that when combined have created a mind-boggling database of 14 billion license plates. That database will continue to expand especially now that Rekor Systems wants to create neighborhood license plate networks. (To learn more about Rekor Systems massive license plate database click here.)
Turning video doorbells into neighborhood license plate reader networks threatens everyone’s privacy.