Tuesday, January 27, 2015

DEA tracks your car in real-time now.

US Federal government has created a -nation wide- license plate tracking system that follows you around wherever you go on major highways.

The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents.

The primary goal of the license-plate tracking program, run by the Drug Enforcement Administration, is to seize cars, cash and other assets to combat drug trafficking, according to one government document. But the database's use has expanded to hunt for vehicles associated with numerous other potential crimes, from kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, say people familiar with the matter.

Officials have publicly said that they track vehicles near the border with Mexico to help fight drug cartels. What hasn't been previously disclosed is that the DEA has spent years working to expand the database "throughout the United States,'' according to one email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Many state and local law-enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations, according to people familiar with the program, putting a wealth of information in the hands of local officials who can track vehicles in real time on major roadways.

In English, this means that not only are Fed super spies tracking your car near borders, they are doing it -everywhere-, they are doing it all the time, and they are letting Deputy Dawg the local cop track whoever he wants, whenever he wants, for whatever he wants.

The DEA program collects data about vehicle movements, including time, direction and location, from high-tech cameras placed strategically on major highways. Many devices also record visual images of drivers and passengers, which are sometimes clear enough for investigators to confirm identities, according to DEA documents and people familiar with the program.

The documents show that the DEA also uses license-plate readers operated by state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies to feed into its own network and create a far-reaching, constantly updating database of electronic eyes scanning traffic on the roads to steer police toward suspects.

Why is this bad? Its bad because it doesn't track bad guys. It tracks EVERYONE. Then Deputy Dawg decides who he's interested in, and the database tells him where that car is and where it has been. Since forever, if he wants.

Naturally they say its being used to track people suspected of major crimes, but that's not true. It tracks everyone. It records everyone. Then the cops decide if they care where you've been or not.

Here's another reason why its a bad thing. California wants to impose a mileage tax. Guess what technology they're going to use to make that happen. Uh huh. license plate cameras. Because then you don't have to modify every car, just stick cameras all over the place.

The Phantom

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