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Brookline says no to state-funded license-plate scanner over privacy concerns

Wicked Local Brookline reports selectmen are not convinced data from the gizmo, which lets cruising cops scan large numbers of license-plate numbers, would not be misused once transferred to a state database.

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. . . As there is no rule of law over the national security state and whatever boundaries it respects are by it's choice alone. Good looking out Brookline Selectmen.

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and now this. I love Brookline, I really do - have lived here for several years. However, the selectmen really are a bunch of old, out of touch overeducated folks who spend too much time with minor details like why parking meters or confusing or where a liqour store should be.

Here is a shock for you - the moment you sign onto the internet, your privacy begins to erode. Ever use a cell phone? Well, the carrier, the phone mater, the app you're using to kill angry birds, etc, knows where you are, how often you play, your talk time, what numbers you dial, what maps you route, etc. Hey, you can opt out of these, you can opt out by not living or going to Brookline - you won't though because we have yummy food.

Once tax revenue declines or crime rises, these things will all be revisisted.

Brookline selectman aren't these sage oracles - they are actually in the process of suing a guy for feeding pigeons on his roof. Very republic of them.

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However, the selectmen really are a bunch of old, out of touch overeducated folks who spend too much time with minor details like why parking meters or confusing or where a liqour store should be.

One of five of them is a 31 year old woman, but don't let that "minor detail" stop you. You're on a roll.

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I've never understood privacy concerns surrounding license plates (eg, why they're blacked out on TV). I can think of few things less private than big letters and numbers in bold print on the front and back of a car. I could walk down the street and write down a hundred license plate numbers right now.

And what could a potential wrongdoer even do with a license plate number, anyways?

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Let's say I drive down Beacon every day for a month at 3 times during the day. I record all of the license plates I see and the location and time that I saw them. If you live or work in/around Brookline, you might turn up frequently in the database I've compiled. I could detect trends in your particular parking habits which may tell me something about where you live or work that I wouldn't otherwise have access to.

Now, make it every 1-2 hours, every day, and it's every street in Brookline not just Beacon. Do you see where this could go? And it's run by the same people who do have access to the registration records to look up who owns the car (or, reversely, if they're looking for you and get your plate details, they could then reconstruct your daily patterns).

So, sure, you could write down all the plates you want, but a car with a scanner and an unlimited amount of computer power waiting for the input could do a lot more than you and your piece of paper.

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At least that data would be in the hands of a government that represents me, as opposed to a private company. My cell phone always knows exactly where I am, and so does my cell phone company. There's a long history of which cell towers I've connected to for every call I've ever made. Verizon knows exactly where I've been for the last seven years or so. So what?

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The Brookline selectmen are representing the people of Brookline who have historically favored privacy over government intrusion into their lives.

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Your right to privacy in MA does not extend to things you do in public - eg, driving down the road or on-street parking. Anyone could follow me as I drive and determine where I live, where I park, where I work, where I shop, etc. and violate no law. PIs do it all the time.

I see the issue of ease and scope - system makes it easy to track people, easy to track lots of people. But there's no right to protect in the first place.

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That's just it. This is a right that was assumed due to a lack of feasability. We didn't have to question whether this right existed...because there was simply no means for it not to exist as a whole. Sure, we could hire half of us to privately investigate the other half of us...but then who would investigate the half that we hired? However, one person with the right equipment can monitor ALL of us...ALL of the time if it were approved of. Before the technology and software existed to do all of the correlations, you maintained a certain level of privacy simply because you were in public. The only way for there to be a hoard of anonymous people ("the public") is if every single non-anonymous individual is present at the same time thus making themselves much more anonymous through mass action...obscurity through overwhelming numbers. That is destroyed through the use of technology like this. The question posed to Brookline was whether that obscurity was an assumed right and should that right be protected. They ruled in the affirmative. I tend to agree with them.

"The public" is a civil entity that should be protected. We should not solely be considered a collection of individuals.

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Is about all the towns and cities who did accept the state grant for these LPRs and use them now.

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- I'd like to see that story. What towns did take this dough?

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that fall within this district. I can't remember the name of the group of towns, but Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Revere, Everett, and a few other towns are on the same radio/resopnse group for multi-agency programs. This group of cities and towns get chunks of money from the feds for programs like this. I believe this grant was part of this.

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I assume that Brookline doesn't allow black helicopters to fly over their town either.

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This is the kind of.thing I live about my town. These cameras have been in Sommervile for a few years and I saw a cruiser in watertown with them.

To.those who scoff at privacy or say it is only the govt . I would say that there is no digital information that can't be obtained. I think we have all heard about security breaches published by wikileaks. Many of the data systems behind it will likely be subbed out to a private company like say haliburton. Between the two of them all bets are off on that information staying secure. And we aren't the only ones with the access to the information.

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