Ban Covert License Plate Surveillance on Private Vehicles

Pass legislation immediately banning the installation of automatic license plate reader (ALPR) devices on private citizens' vehicles without their explicit, informed consent. Flock Safety was actively pitching a plan to conscript hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers as roaming surveillance nodes, scanning every license plate they passed through a partnership with dashcam company Nexar. Drivers and passengers would have had no idea they were part of a mass data collection network. This is a Fourth Amendment issue. Flock's own presentation to the Georgia Attorney General's office described a network of 350,000 rideshare and delivery vehicles feeding license plate data into a commercial surveillance system. That data tracks where people go, when, and how often — without a warrant, without consent, and without oversight. Flock previously explored using hacked data to link license plates directly to individuals before public pressure forced them to abandon it. The pattern is clear: this company will push as far as the law allows. The law needs to catch up. Prohibit placing ALPR technology on private civilian vehicles for commercial surveillance purposes, and require meaningful penalties for companies that attempt it. Rideshare drivers shouldn't be drafted into a surveillance apparatus they never agreed to join, and the rest of us shouldn't be tracked every time we drive past one.