Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley defends his company's automated license plate reading cameras on 'Fox & Friends.' As critics raise privacy concerns over the cameras tracking vehicles, Langley highlights that the technology helped solve more than 1 million crimes last year.
Your phone may be giving a roadside sensor clues about where you go and which devices regularly travel alongside you. Say you carpool to work with the same person most mornings. Your car passes a license plate reader, which records the plate along with the time and location. Meanwhile, another sensor detects wireless signals coming from devices traveling nearby. Your phone might be there. So could a smartwatch, wireless headphones or electronics built into the car.
After enough trips, software may recognize that some of those signals tend to move together. Now there is a recurring electronic pattern associated with that vehicle. Weeks later, one of those signals appears somewhere else, perhaps near a different vehicle connected to an investigation. Police may not know who owns the device yet. However, its previous connections could give investigators a place to start.
LICENSE PLATE CAMERAS ARE TRACKING DRIVERS EVERYWHERE
SignalTrace links wireless signals from phones, wearables and other devices with license plate reader data to identify recurring travel patterns. (Jim Craige for LDOUSCSS)
That is the idea behind SignalTrace, a technology marketed to law enforcement by security company Leonardo. And it raises a big privacy question: How anonymous is a device signal once it can be tied to a vehicle, repeated locations and other devices traveling alongside it?
New! Free live CyberGuy class: Protect Your Money From Today’s Biggest Threats
Join us Saturday, Aug. 29, at 10 a.m. ET for a free CyberGuy LIVE class covering five simple steps to help defend yourself against AI scams, fraud, identity theft and financial hacks. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson will explain how to set up bank alerts, strengthen your account logins, protect your phone number, freeze your credit and help secure your retirement savings against unauthorized transfers. No technical experience is needed. You’ll also receive our financial protection checklist, and every registrant will get a link to the class recording afterward.
Reserve your free spot today at CyberGuyLive.com.
SignalTrace works alongside automatic license plate reader technology, commonly called ALPR. Traditional license plate readers photograph passing vehicles. They can record the plate number, vehicle information and the time and location of the sighting. We recently looked at how license plate cameras are tracking drivers across the country. SignalTrace adds another layer.
Leonardo says the system detects electronic signals being broadcast by consumer devices. That can include signals associated with phones, wearables, vehicle electronics and RFID devices. The software looks for signals that repeatedly appear together. It can then create what Leonardo calls an electronic fingerprint for that group.
According to the company's product information, SignalTrace can connect recurring device patterns with license plate information and time-stamped locations. Investigators can later search those patterns. Leonardo also says the technology can help recognize a vehicle even when its license plate isn’t visible. That changes the starting point for an investigation. Police traditionally might begin with a plate number or known suspect. With this type of system, investigators could potentially begin with a recurring pattern of electronic signals and work backward.
Leonardo told CyberGuy, "Leonardo recognizes that technologies used to support public safety must balance investigative value with the privacy rights of individuals. SignalTrace was designed with that responsibility in mind." According to the company, SignalTrace detects and correlates electronic signals that devices publicly broadcast. Leonardo says the system does not decrypt communications, access message content or collect information stored on someone's device.
The company also stressed that SignalTrace itself does not identify individuals or associate an electronic signature with a person. However, Leonardo confirmed that an investigator could correlate an electronic signature with a license plate. The investigator could then, subject to applicable laws and policies, use outside vehicle registration records to obtain information about the registered owner. In other words, any identification would come from separate investigative steps and outside records, not from SignalTrace itself. The registered owner of a vehicle also isn’t necessarily the person who was carrying a particular device at a particular time.
Leonardo told CyberGuy, "SignalTrace data is an investigative lead, not proof of identity." The company added that the data "should not be considered proof of an individual's identity or involvement in an incident." Any association with a person, Leonardo says, requires additional investigative work and corroborating information under applicable legal requirements and agency procedures. The company summed up its position this way: "Leonardo believes technology should support, not replace, sound investigative practices."
