From Trump campaign signs to Planned Parenthood bumper stickers, license plate readers around the US are creating searchable databases that reveal Americans’ political leanings and more.

  • qprimed@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    I’d wager that the cameras can’t read them either if you can’t at 10 yards

    I might not take a bet on that. most license plates use reflective paint to aid in this. it would surprise me if paint and cameras are not tuned to at least one non human-visible wavelength.

    polarized plate covers, specialized spray coatings, etc may work, but I am not betting my freedom on it. time to go bond style and get rotating plates.

    • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month ago

      What about a thin e-ink layer plus led layer display that fits over the plate and would block the plate while displaying a digital plate over it? May need a few rounds of evolution there but might work

      • qprimed@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 month ago

        very cool idea. they will counter with RFID or turn the plate into the equiv of a qrcode. store a cryptographically secure hash of the plate number and you pretty much put an end to that, no?. if I cant get a crypto signed version of your plate, flag the the car as a scofflaw (or worse) and track it as it travels in other ways. I think we are pretty much screwed without a change in laws.

        with anti-women laws in some of these states, this is terrifying.

        • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 month ago

          We’re probably decades away from them countering with anything meaningful like that unless large swaths of people start doing it.

    • Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      I’ve heard there are hyper-reflective stickers you can put on/near the plate that basically blind a traffic camera’s view when trying to read it