Chris Metaxas, chief executive of Digital Recognition Network, a company that profits from collecting and selling data that are captured using license plate scanners, is right about one thing: A tide of sentiment against his company’s offerings is indeed growing, in Massachusetts and around the country (“Law is in place to protect license plate data,” Letters, March 14).
But I think Metaxas is wrong about everything else. Scanning ordinary Americans’ license plates billions of times, then tagging photos with each car’s location, date, and time in a huge database, has created exactly what Metaxas claims it has not: a vast hidden surveillance network.
Metaxas offers assurances about the misleadingly named Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, but this law actually makes information held by the Registry of Motor Vehicles expressly available for use by insurance companies, private investigators, or anyone contemplating litigation of any sort. Plus, data brokers collect it in bulk and then resell it.
License plate scanners can and should be used to catch crooks and scofflaws but not to track ordinary people. We deserve smart laws that protect both public safety and privacy, and in Massachusetts that means passing the License Plate Privacy Act.
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