License Plate Readers

I have previously blogged about license plate readers.  This report tells about the use of readers by the auto repo industry.  While they are primary users of the information the information collecting company is Vigilant Solutions.

The report says that the repo industry powers the information collection agencies.  I am sure that the info collection companies do a substantial amount of business with them but maybe more important to the companies doing information collection business is the use of the repo industry as an excuse for collecting general "private" information on all citizens for a business model of monetizing the data base.

Monetizing the data base means selling information to whomever wants to buy it and selling it for the highest price relative to the cost of production.  A definition of profit.  The information, license plate numbers in this case, is free.  All cost is in collection transmission, storage and cost of computer processing.

Free information to be collected is like gold laying on the ground and the new gold rush is on to gather the easily picked up nuggets.  After the easy ones, the harder to get, more costly to process information will be the next tier to be collected.

The situation is simple and exactly like the NSA model.  Collect information on everyone because some information on a small segment is extremely valuable.  There is profit in expanding the size of the segment to which the collected information can be sold for some reason to some entity for a great return on investment.  It is a profit model.  That is a common business model.  Duh!  The less government interference there is with this model the greater the profit.  That, of course is another business strategy.

Free information is a free for all!  I hereby claim all rights including bragging rights for coining that phrase to the extent that it does not have any hits on google when entered in quotes.  Nobody has ever used that phrase in anything that the google crawler has indexed.  I am the first!  It may be my one and only claim to fame.  However it was probably used internally at the NSA.  Their data base, however is not available to Google, although it may appear in the Snowden documents.  Being first is euphoric like climbing Everest!

Vigilant Solutions and all others in the same business knows that privacy is personal privacy is a gut issue, political issue, government regulation issue.  Business rules in this area because business controls the rules as well as the media that attempts to control public opinion.  In order to protect the business model of collecting public information on individuals they have to have a well designed plan to thwart negative public and governmental reaction.  Governmental regulatory action primarily and public reaction as much as possible.  Same old game as the NSA.  The end must justify the means.

Get the bad guys is always an excellent excuse for doing things where the pay off is really something else entirely.  A model used by the defense industry.  If bad guys are not there then they have to be created.  There is no need to create bad guys in the our society.  There are more than enough there already.  The pickings are rich.  Perverts for example at the extreme end.  Easy pickings at the extreme end.  Just choose something everyone hates and start walking back the hate list from there.  Throw in some manipulated hate where enough does not exist already on an easy target.

Nobody objects to identifying sex offenders by location.  Beyond that start is a continuum of reasons to collect information on everyone for some reason, even if it is a innocent as a birth certificate.  All that is needed is some sort of reasonable reason.  Reasonable by any definition and circumstance.

It is easy to make a million dollars in the business sector related to monetizing publicly available private information.  If I wanted to become richer that is the sector in which to do it.  Cost of collection is cheap, storage and processing is cheap.  The price that certain entities will pay for the information is big.

Buy low and sell high!  Can't claim rights to counting that phrase but it is certainly applicable.  To disguise this business model from the great unwashed that would selfishly use it to her filthy rich it is called arbitrage.

To keep the analysis extremely simple so the complexity of the information collection business can be easily understood this is what it is all about:  The objective in the business of collecting public information on private persons is to connect the information collected to the private person.  After making the connection, the second step is to find some entity that will pay for that information.  After that it is as easy and taking the money.

People go to business schools to learn and apply this money making idea?

Value added is the the meat of information collection.  Great value is added when a license plate number is associated with an individual and that association is connected to a repo record that identifies an individual as a deadbeat.  That is one degree of separation information pay off.  Take it to a third of fourth degree by associating to other pieces of private information about an individual and the pay off grows geometrically.

License plate number is one piece of information.  Value is added by also recording the GPS location as well as the time of information acquisition.  Three pieces of information.  GPS positioning information can be entered into Google maps to obtain visual information about the location.  Pay some off shore worker to do this or automatically obtain it through a search program that gives addresses located within a perimeter of the location.  Probably the latter.  At some point when qualitative information is required then cheap foreign labor can do it.

If while cruising a parking lot or street a real time alert is received on a license of interest or sufficient interest to warrant added attention then the person collecting the information might get an added bonus if they waited until the driver returned to the car and obtained an unprotected wifi or bluetooth MAC identification from a cell phone or computer.  In the case of a computer it is probably in the car rather than carried with the owner.  Perhaps an added bonus for a picture of the interior of the vehicle.  Another bonus for a picture of the person returning to the vehicle.

While the subject story of this blog describes the cost of scanning equipment to do this as above $10k, a simple app for an iPhone would probably be the cheapest solution but more likely than using the iPhone camera a feed from a cheap high res video camera would be better.  If something as finely subtle as facial recognition is possible, reading license plate numbers should be simple.  Especially simple if the camera is sampling at a high rate and a fast shutter speed.  At night an infrared light could be used.

Beyond stationary cars the other part of a vehicle's existence is spent on the move.  It is certainly as easy and cheap to record license plates of vehicles in motion.  In addition to obtaining license plate information, open MAC addresses of devices in motion anywhere, on the road or being carried is equally obtainable with no need of a visible or disguised device necessary to obtain it.  I have also previously blogged about such devices and methods.

Raw private information is available to be scooped up and sold to be further refined in to more precious stuff that can be sold for even more.  Sold in some cases to government or other restricted entities that could not collect and process the same information.

There is value in license plate information collected at the gross level and valued at the gross level.  For example, special events where presence of the vehicle relates to the event and the drivers probable association with that event.

Relating license plate numbers to individuals depends on a data base to do this.  States have this data base but so does any entity that holds a loan on the vehicle.  Otherwise the information would have to come from another source.  That information would be valuable and the object of effort to obtain it.  Vehicle associated to residence might be a common method as well as being a valuable independent information association.  Auto dealerships might be a source of license plate information as well as any entity that services the vehicle for things like oil change or even car washing.  I expect that there would be many entities having license plate associated with owner information that would monetize their data base with no questions asked.  Becoming an "affiliate" of the entity buying this information and sharing it with them is one way around any privacy concerns.


This site has a list of businesses that deal in license plate recognition