License plate tracking corporation asks cops to stay mum on their use of controversial surveillance tool
Privacysos.org
03/03/2015
The New York Police Department is the latest police agency planning to pay private license plate tracking corporation Vigilant Solutions for access to the company’s nationwide location database, according to a report in the New York Daily News and documents unearthed by Ars Technica’s Cyrus Farivar. By contracting to access Vigilant’s rapidly growing National Vehicle Location Service (NVLS), where police will find over two billion records of ordinary Americans’ movements, the NYPD may also sign on to some very questionable secrecy provisions found in the company’s terms of service agreement.
It’s been very difficult to discern exactly which public agencies dip into and feed Vigilant’s massive location tracking database, or how much police departments and federal law enforcement pay to access the treasure trove of sensitive information. It now appears as if that’s in part because, as with the high-tech cell phone tracking Stingray tool, agencies that contract with Vigilant are asked to keep mum on the details of their arrangements.
Ars Technica reports:
Vigilant requires that its licensees—law enforcement agencies—not talk publicly about its LPR database. According to the 2014 edition of its terms and conditions: “This prohibition is specifically intended to prohibit users from cooperating with any media outlet to bring attention to LEARN or LEARN-NVLS.”
The Rest…HERE
