[LINK] NSW Police photographing numberplates and storing data for five years, Four Corners reports

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:42 PM 9/09/2013, Jeremy Visser wrote:
>I don't disagree with the concerns raised here, but how was this not 
>already known?!
>
>When they sent us rego renewal letters with a big blank void where 
>the rego sticker was, saying that police cars now automatically 
>detect unregistered vehicles, how did people not already notice this?!
>
>Why has it taken nearly a year for someone to notice?

Um, does it also say they take a photo of any car that is within 
photo distance of the police vehicle and store that photo for 5 
years? Did they say it was only for detection of unregistered 
vehicles or did it also say it was linked to profiles of people 
associated with the number who's character and other activities are 
also stored in a police database as was shown on 4 corners tonight? 
Does it say if you have the right to query that database of photos to 
find out if they have stored your plate and location and time of 
being at that location in their database for 5 years? Did it say if 
you have the right to check if they have any data in that database 
after those 5 years are over? Is any of that data ever linked to the 
tollway data collection? Is that data ever linked to other government 
held databases, either at state or federal level? Is it shared with 
foreign governments? Does it distinguish diplomatic plates and not 
store that data? Does it capture plates from other states and share 
that data with those states? I don't know the answers to these latter 
questions, but I doubt anyone in the general public in NSW does either.

It's not quite as simple as saying we can automatically see if your 
car is unregistered. Unpacking that simple statement is critical for 
the public to understand the extent of the surveillance that is going 
on. Same thing in any state where these programs are in place.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com

Sooner or later, I hate to break it to you, you're gonna die, so how 
do you fill in the space between here and there? It's yours. Seize your space.
~Margaret Atwood, writer

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