From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.
Ah yes, the freedom of owning a car.
this kind of thing is why I do not advertise my politics at all. no bumper stickers or yard signs or campaign t shirts. im even registered without a party so you can’t look up my affiliation. and I don’t talk politics on the internet because nothing is truly anonymous. if someone wants to come after you they will be able to find you with enough effort.
Sounds like you’re not loyal enough to The Party. If you were a good citizen, you wouldn’t have anything to hide. Throw him in the gulag!
Yeah that’s pretty dystopian. Something worse hasn’t been done with it probably just because many bad actors haven’t been aware its an option.
If you could access the database, then you could put a camera near an electronic billboard and then serve personalized ads to people as they drive down the road.
I wish we could elect people we trust
there’s a town nearby with dispensaries that have some amazing deals. there also happen to be three red light cams and two license plate readers the have been reported to give their information to out of state agencies and ICE on the two other stoplights in town. You can’t convince me that’s not some kind of honeypot.
They literally scan your ID when you buy green in my state. They already know who you are and where you live. The cameras are to keep people honest (intimidated).
I mean in addition to all that even if they didn’t scan your id of you pay with anything but cash then the credit card company or bank knows and can be made to give up that info pretty easily.
Not a single cannabis store that I know of in the US accepts credit card. They’re all cash only because the banks don’t want any part of it. (Technically it’s still federally illegal, and they don’t want to get in trouble as national business)
Not a single cannabis store that I know of in the US accepts credit card.
False. Went to one in June, 2024, in New York City, right around Time’s Square, and the guy behind the counter asked if I was paying via cash, debit, or credit.
I asked him about the credit option, and he said Visa has started working with some dispensaries and offering their credit services for payment. I even mentioned it to a dispensary employee in Maine (they only accept cash), and he said the same thing: Visa is the only one that’s barely starting to offer credit service for dispensaries.
Lots of “stores” sell “weed” (delta 8) and that’s not illegal for credit cards.
You are not buying real weed from a real dispensary in the US with a credit card, yet. One day, but if you aren’t paying cash, that’s a red flag.
Yep, that must be why I walked into a dispensary, that sold only recreational and medicinal marijuana to adults aged 21+, that checked all IDs at the door, and reverified them by the cashier. Then, after completing my transaction using a debit card, and having my aforementioned conversation with the cashier, who was wearing the identification as is required by all states with recreational marijuana on a lantern around their neck, and proceeded to leave with legitimate marijuana…
I know delta 8 and all those substitutes. This was a legitimate dispensary advertising and using Visa for credit transactions for their purchases.
Hence why I said they’re very barely doing so, but Visa appears to at least be starting to, and that your statement of “no store selling marijuana will use a credit care” was false.
Ahhh, debit. Not credit.
My point still stands.
That person was reporting their experience. It’s not false that they have not seen it. I haven’t, either.
I have seen many run it as an ATM transaction rounded to the nearest dollar and refund the change in cash. I saw this in two states.
Having said that. I love cash only businesses. Visa and the other CC companies have way too much power. We should all go back to cash tomorrow, but we won’t.
I ran a business, not weed related, that was cash only for the better part of 5 years. When I started taking cards I made sure cash and bitcoin were also options. The only downside was going to the bank every week to grab stacks of small bills for change. The upside was never having to deal with credit cards and every payment settling instantly when the cash changed hands. Under $100, cash is king.
Why under $100?
Simply because most people won’t walk around with $100+ in their wallet. If you are specifically going to pay for something I guess cash is king until it hits 30-40lbs and gets harder to carry.
With enough readers … Your location and minute by minute tracking of your every movement
Or just the phone in your car or on your person.
Which has a pair of nice microphones!
But a digital gun database is unconstitutional?
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So what you’re saying we create a Credit Score system, but for guns. Might just work 🧐
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Since those cameras are so easy to deploy, it would be trivial to place them near gun stores and gun ranges, and other places frequented by gun owners, it’s not a gun registry though. It’s simply four catching criminals and for the children’s safety of course. If you go against the police you are un-American
police obviously won’t care
Unless you’re taking pictures of police vehicles, in which case they definitely care. Still not illegal, but they’ll most likely harass you for it.
But hey, you can make a living suing police departments, there are worse things to spend your time on.
Federal civil rights lawsuit: any%
I’ve never wanted to post signs in my yard or put stickers on my bumpers because I didn’t want PEOPLE judging me. And people are judgmental. Now I’m glad I had that opinion because we have to worry about computers logging us so we can be judged in the future for whatever weird reason someone comes up with?
What happened to freedoms in America? It’s easy for a government to strip them after the people stop believing in them being important. Corporations are making free thought and self expression unimportant and dangerous and the gov’t will have no choice but to curb our freedoms in response. And we will cheer it on. I hate this shit.
What happened to freedoms in America? It’s easy for a government to strip them after the people stop believing in them being important.
Add to that how much more difficult (and time consuming and expensive) it is to build/rebuild than it is to destroy and you’ve got a real problem on your hands.
We got attacked and then in fear gave away our freedoms for the promise of more protections. There were people blowing the whistle each time but we ignored them. Patriot Act. Lobbying to not consider social platforms news aggregates. Lobbying to not pay news outlets, Lobbying to weaken anti-trust laws. Lobbying to kill legislation protecting children online. Lobbying against legislation to protect user privacy. Lobbying for the use of tech like facial recognition.
This kind of thing has been happening for ages.
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Wow this article goes into the nuance. And it terrified me.
a big thank you for your comment. comments like these really do help me to not skip worthwhile articles.
Hmm. I have a bumper sticker that says “I ❤️ Nuclear War”. I wonder what bucket that puts me in.
The non credible defense bucket.
Drive around with a permanent bike rack in the way of your tail plate. No front plates.
Some states require front plates.
Blocking a plate with a bike rack isn’t a bad idea, except - a) the rack will wear your paint, b) any automated toll collection based on license plate reading will also be blocked. Probably NBD once in while, but if someone regularly skips tolls and is caught it’s gonna hurt. They just had a toll-skipper sting near me where they caught a crapton of people who regularly skipped tolls with license plate blockers and temp tags. They lost their cars instantly, a few got slapped with 6-figure fines and fees, and I imagine jail time might be on the menu for some.
Ours apparently does, but nobody follows that law, and I’ve never seen it enforced.
- a - easy fix, drive a beater
- b - the only tolls in my area use a sensor
If you didn’t want to use a tracking sensor for tolls, can’t you just pay cash? Whenever I visit Florida, that’s what I do. It sucks when the machine is busted, but then I just chuck my change at it and go.
They’ve been dismantling cash toll stops to erect automated readers in their place.
Dang. I haven’t been to Florida (or anywhere with tolls) for a few years, but I knew plate readers were an option, but I thought cash tolls were still quite prevalent.
That’s a privacy nightmare.
I’ve resigned myself to just pre planning longer routes to avoid tolls. I am not putting a transponder in my car and I am certainly not going pay for that privilege or to help normalize it.
I mean if you’re planning on doing all these weird work arounds, just get a fake plate/mess with your old plates so the letters are more difficult to read.
this will make them more likely to pull you over: each license plate will add to the number of potential cars under a warrant. Imo just don’t use a car to commit crimes or get a ride.
A bike rack maintains plausible deniability.
Messing with your plates or getting fake plates could land you in court.
Exactly. Cops hate plate obfuscation and will probably pull you over on that alone. Having a bike rack? They’ll probably let it slide.
I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to intentionally hide your plates
But is it illegal to intentionally always be ready to carry bikes?
This is and has been a big deal for a while. Do we really want easily trackable movements on every major road? What happens when they start feeding that data into federal fusion centers for cataloging and storage “just in case” they need it later?
What happens when a regime that criminalizes dissent has access to realtime vehicular and individual (via mobile phone) tracking data?
If I ever get the chance I’m going to use it to take people’s guns away and go after vehicles with modified emissions systems.
They already do this to flag potential traffickers. I’m not sure what we want has anything to do with what happens.
