Cars and the devices inside them are constantly transmitting information. Law enforcement and surveillance vendors are trying to take advantage of this.
getty
aAccording to its developer, the Rome, Italy-based surveillance firm Leonardo, American police are using any vehicle on the road that emits signals, including phones, smart watches, cat and dog tracking chips, and even library books. The company is testing a new technology that can be scanned by vehicles across the country.
This early technology, called Elsag EOC Plus, is typically integrated into one of Leonardo’s Elsag license plate readers, but it can also be deployed as a standalone surveillance device, allowing police to monitor a suspect’s movements. It is designed to. But privacy advocates say: forbes This new technology could be exploited to illegally track people across large areas of the country and learn more about them by identifying their belongings without their knowledge.
According to a marketing brochure from last year’s Millipol conference in Paris, Leonardo claims the tool can identify specific models of devices such as iPhones and Bose headphones inside a moving car. According to the brochure, it can also identify unique signals emitted by pet chips, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, wearable technology such as fitness trackers, in-vehicle infotainment systems, tire pressure sensors, and can even detect RFID in library books. . For law enforcement, all of this data can be tied to a vehicle’s license plate number and become a unique “fingerprint.” When a person passes another plate’s scanner, fingerprints can be tracked around a certain area, even if the driver or passenger changes vehicles.
“This is ripe for exploitation not only because of how it can be used to track people, but also because it gives us a cheat sheet for all the electronic devices that are on people.”
“As an example, 30 out of 100 cars may have an iPhone, but 30 out of 100 cars may have an iPhone 13rev2, an Audi radio, Bose headphones, a Garmin sports watch, a key finder, and a license plate ABC-1234. The collection of data represented by these particular things is an electronic signature,” Leonardo explained in the brochure.
Customers for new technology may not be limited to police stations and public roads. Leonardo writes in the brochure that it could be useful in “off-road areas such as train stations and shopping centres.”as forbes It was reported earlier this month that shopping malls across the U.S. are already installing AI-powered vehicle surveillance technology from Leonardo rival Flock Safety, which is helping law enforcement agencies catch shoplifters. The data is being sent directly. Flock’s AI camera similarly creates “fingerprints” of different cars, but rather than scanning internal devices, it looks at things other than license plate numbers, such as color, make, model, bumper stickers, and wheel rims. We focus on identifying the characteristics of
Leonardo’s brochure promoting new vehicle surveillance technology.
forbes
Leonardo spokesman Nate Maloney said: forbes The company recently patented the technology and is “fully committed” to selling the product worldwide. The company currently has no paying customers, but Maloney said he has confirmed that at least one of its current license plate detection customers is trying out the technology in a test environment. He did not say which police departments in the U.S. are assisting with trials, but said they are not currently being used for public surveillance. The company claims he has over 4,000 Elsag license plate customers throughout the United States.
Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he doesn’t see how police would “justify putting tax dollars into this.”
“Police already have license plate readers, so it’s hard to think of a use case for such technology,” he added. “This is ripe for exploitation not only because of how it can be used to track people, but also because it gives us a cheat sheet of all the electronic devices that are on people,” police said. This information could be used to decide what equipment to seize when stopping and searching individuals, which is of particular concern to activists and journalists participating in protests, Guariglia said. he said.
Maloney said Leonardo will work with law enforcement agencies to ensure he stays within the bounds of the law. For example, if government agencies are not allowed to identify devices in cars without a warrant, surveillance tools could be turned off to prevent excessive data collection, he said. He noted that the tool does not collect content from people’s devices. “We’re not going in and deciphering anything. These are just signals in the air,” he added.
Last month, Byron Tau, a reporter for NOTUS, a nonprofit publication of the Allbritton Institute for Journalism, reported that similar technology made by a German company called Ienoptic was being tested by U.S. law enforcement in two Texas counties. However, it is unclear how widely it was implemented. (Jenoptik did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.)
Guariglia said the new technology is “also known as a stingray.” Stingray, also known as a cell site simulator, is a surveillance tool that pretends to be a mobile cell phone tower and collects information about all the phones in a certain area.as forbes As previously reported, they are also used to find cars. It has proven so controversial that some states require a warrant before use, as it can potentially collect information about innocent citizens.
The Leonardo tool is also used to “trick devices into sending pings and track you wherever you go,” Guariglia said, adding that “just because you’re pinging a different kind of signal doesn’t mean it’s pinging you.” That doesn’t mean it’s harmless,” he added.
