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Using police-style systems, company tracks autos then sells the data

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Privately owned license-plate imaging systems are popping up in upstate New York — in parking lots and shopping malls and, soon, on at least a few parts of the New York State Thruway.

The digital cameras are mounted on cars and trucks driven by a small army of repo men who are shadowing a practice of US law enforcement that some find objectionable. Data collected by the auto-repossession companies are being added to an ever-growing database of license-plate records that is made available to commercial buyers as well as to government agencies.

Currently, that database has about 2.3 billion permanent records. On average, the whereabouts of every vehicle in the United States appears in that database nine times.

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Todd Hodnett, founder of the company that aggregates and sells that data, defends the activity as lawful and harmless: ‘‘We’re just photographing things that are publicly visible.’’

Many private-sector camera operators, like parking companies, say they do not know the names and addresses behind the plates they scan. Others, like universities, say they discard the records quickly.

But that doesn’t satisfy critics. No matter how benign the intentions of camera system operators, they say, their data may prove irresistible to government and to private parties that are bent on snooping.

‘‘We think people are entitled to wander around this grand country without being concerned about being tracked,’’ said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ‘‘What they’re doing . . . is making it possible for someone to come back and check.’’

Five states regulate or ban the private use of license-plate readers, known as LPRs. New York is not one of them. Anyone is free to create databases of license-plate records on New York streets or parking lots.

Such systems already are commonplace among police agencies around the country.

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The systems alert police if a camera spots the plate of a stolen car or a vehicle on the ‘‘hot list’’ for another reason. Police say they generally store the records so they can trace the whereabouts of a suspect or look for witnesses who might have driven past a crime scene.

Hodnett launched Digital Recognition Network in 2007 to help repo companies find cars they’re hired to repossess. A year later, the idea arose of repurposing the records. ‘‘We thought we could turn around and offer this for law-enforcement purposes,’’ he said.

In partnership with Vigilant Solutions, a California hardware maker that provided cameras for DRN’s system and now is DRN’s corporate parent, Hodnett launched the National Vehicle Location Service. It incorporates the private-sector data collected by DRN with other plate records gathered by police and stored on Vigilant computer servers. Law enforcement agencies have limited free access to the database. Full access is available for a fee.

The company also sells data to commercial customers that are allowed access to motor vehicle records under federal law. ‘‘We do not make it available to any individuals,’’ Hodnett said.

He said DRN’s database ‘‘does not contain any personally identifiable information whatsoever.’’

But any number of companies and agencies can match a plate to a name, and anyone with the money and a plausible reason can hire a private investigator to surf through DRN’s 2.3 billion records.

Tien said advocates have been trying without success to get a clear picture of who has access to DRN’s data. But they know state and federal regulations leave room for a wide range of clients.

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‘‘As a general matter, the limit is what they’re currently willing and able to do to monetize the data,’’ he said.