8 ms·
He saw an abandoned trailer, then uncovered a surveillance network
- xvxvx 7mo agoI assume every vehicle has been tracked for decades now. Remember when they simplified the design of license plates to make them easier for cameras to read? Why they feel the need to hide it though.
- mytailorisrich 7mo agoIn the UK: "A record for all vehicles passing by a camera is stored, including those for vehicles that are not known to be of interest at the time of the read. At present ANPR cameras nationally, submit on average around 60 million ANPR ‘read’ records to national ANPR systems daily." [1] (ANPR = Automatic Number Plate Recognition) The data is kept for 12 months. So basically if you get onto the police radar for whatever reason they can roughly see how you used your car, and others they know you had access to, in the last 12 months (just saying, hum, hum). [1] https://www.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/rs/road-safety/automatic-number-plate-recognition-anpr/ https://www.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/rs/road-...
- gambiting 7mo agoSo I'll say two things to that: 1) If your car is stolen, suddenly none of this capability exists, or is inaccessible to police for some reason. No one can actually just type in your reg and see where it was last seen, seemingly, even though it would be an easy way to locate criminals. And if you think well, thieves will just change the plates - no, stolen vehicles are frequently recovered on their original plates. 2) I keep saying various FB Police pages posting "we found this car X without MOT or tax, last time it was taxed in 2023!" so like...it's been driving for 3 years without anyone noticing? What are all those ANPR cameras for then??
- mytailorisrich 7mo agoThis is the police "prioritising". Regarding your second point, I don't think you'd go scotch free but the police wouldn't bother coming to the registered keeper's address and attempt to seize the car. I believe you'd simply get automatic fines for no MOT or no insurance (plus penalty points). So that's that as long as you don't tweet tendencious things because then they might send several cars to arrest you /s
- JuniperMesos 7mo agoProbably to deter vandalism of the kind that a number of other people in this thread are talking about doing.
- fzeroracer 7mo ago> “If you’re not doing anything illegal, why worry about it?” said long-time Jacumba resident Allen Stanks, 70. Glad to see they dug out the most intelligent person to react to this information. It's also incredibly funny because the opposite should also apply to the government; if they're not doing anything illegal then they should have no need to hide their local surveillance network inside of abandoned trailers or other items. Just another reason to toss on the pile for dismantling CBP.
- RankingMember 7mo agoI swear editors intentionally go with the dumbest takes to get rage engagement.
- mikestew 7mo agoI loved Mr. Stanks follow up of "Privacy?! Why, you post your food on Facebook!". Because what I had for supper and where I've travelled during the day are on exactly the same level of privacy and concern. I have to assume that in the reporter's attempt to have a voice from the pro side and the con side, the best they could find was "if you're not doing anything illegal...".
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 7mo agoIt's the privacy equivalent of "She was dressed skimpy in that part of town"
- consp 7mo agoIf people don't have anything to hide ask them how their marriage is and when the last time was they met their mistress, since they drive by there way too often for not having one nearby that location. That line of questioning usually shuts people up, replace response with financials/location/calls/etc when needed. (I know it's a reductio ad absurdum)
- sghitbyabazooka 7mo agothat's kinda silly because someone may deduce where you've been from a photo at a restaurant
- floren 7mo agoWell, there's a reminder to donate to the EFF again!
- ge96 7mo ago[flagged]
- josefritzishere 7mo agoI've heard those trailers contain 15 lbs of copper wire each.
- burnt-resistor 6mo agoTell all of the meth heads and junkies in town, these trailers will disappear faster than Stephen Miller can utter a racist epithet.
- RajT88 7mo agoScrap metal and sellable parts as well. Most likely a SIM card you can get a bunch of free internet out of too.
- deepriverfish 7mo agowon't they able able to track you down if you start using the SIM though?
- inigyou 7mo agoThey can track the locations where you use that card, and the locations where you use the phone the card was in, before and after the card was in it. Take this information as you will. ETA: "use" means "have a battery inserted"
- RajT88 7mo agoStick it into a smartphone, duct tape it to an ICE vehicle.
- breakingcups 7mo agoIt'd be interesting to see what endpoints they submit the data to...
- pavel_lishin 7mo ago[flagged]
- pinkmuffinere 7mo ago> “Everyone is talking about privacy, OK. Stop putting everything on Facebook. ‘Here’s a picture of my food.’ Who cares?” said Stanks. Lol, this is just an old guy that wants to say something, _anything_ to the world
- pavel_lishin 7mo agoAn old guy who doesn't understand the difference between the state surveilling everything you do, and you volunteering some photographs to the world.
- hollow-moe 7mo ago"You're in public space, you can't assume any kind of privacy here. Just don't go out."
- hydrogen7800 7mo agoThis is perhaps a more common opinion than you think. Making it easy to catch bad guys is enough reason. I don't know how to effectively convince someone that the ease of law enforcement comes at the expense of liberty, which so many of the aforementioned opinion-holders also claim to be concerned about. I feel like it should be self-evident, that law enforcement and liberty are mutually exclusive, and that we have things like warrants to allow that infringement on liberty in very narrow circumstances. Dragnet surveillance is warrant-less evidence gathering.
- pavel_lishin 7mo ago> This is perhaps a more common opinion than you think. Oh, I know it's a common opinion. That's why I'm so upset about it. > the ease of law enforcement comes at the expense of liberty, which so many of the aforementioned opinion-holders also claim to be concerned about. Because they're convinced that because they have nothing to hide, the law will never turn against them.
- RickJWagner 7mo ago[flagged]
- actionfromafar 7mo agoA pre-emptive "both-sides"?
- RickJWagner 7mo agoNo, just a fan of people being informed. People are being manipulated into outrage for political purposes. Many are unaware that previous administrations ( yes, on both sides ) prioritized deportations. The federal machinery in use has been in place over several presidencies and operated in many of the same ways. When given this information, people make less radical outbursts, which is good.
- actionfromafar 7mo agoDifferent bubbles for different folks, I guess. It was a big thing in 2024 that Biden deported more than Trump.
- inigyou 7mo agoWhich proves the outrage is about the method of deportation (black-bag Hispanic looking people, tear up their birth certificate in front of them) and not about the number of people deported.
- RickJWagner 7mo ago[flagged]
- cholantesh 7mo agoThe last article you opined on with this really bizarre line of reasoning was written by a journalist and published in an outlet who have been critiquing all those administrations. You chose to steer the discussion toward political affiliation. So for you, torturing children for 'crimes' of their parents is much less prescient morally than who raises the complaint.
- ting0 7mo agoWhat are the odds Palantir have something to do with this.
- inigyou 7mo ago99 point 9 recurring, but that wasn't new information.
- dmix 7mo agoIn Canada all the police cars seem to have automated license plate readers these days. This article explains there was a 2016 law where California won't share local police plate reader data with the feds, so they made a deal in 2024 where Caltrans (dept of transportation) will let Border Patrol pay for it themselves on roads near border crossing like San Diego County.
- otikik 7mo agoFree trailer
- kotaKat 7mo agoFree SIM card, free NUC running the ALPR DSP software, free Victron solar battery charger/power supply equipment…
- don-code 7mo agoI'm sort of curious where the law stands on this (I am not a lawyer). Since it has a license plate on it, it in theory displays some ownership info. Is that enough for me to say, "it's clearly not mine now"? If it didn't, does that give me any right to take something off a public roadway? Obviously, I know that the letter of the law, and what actually will be enforced, are two different things. Taking something that belongs to CBP would almost definitely be prosecuted in this case, regardless of whether it's legally fair game to do so. It appears that I can't direct-link to it, but look up case 19S-CR-00528 on public.courts.in.gov - this was a case in which the Supreme Court of Indiana overturned an earlier ruling that removing a GPS monitoring device from your own car, when you weren't aware it was there, was theft.
- solomonb 7mo agoI think its the same as stealing a bike or a car parked on the street. I don't know the subtleties but I don't think you can presume something is abandoned merely for being left on the street?
- inigyou 7mo agoIs it illegal to put big cardboard boxes weighed down with rocks in front of these cameras? Asking for a friend.
- inigyou 7mo agoI hope to operate one of these networks. Maybe I should apply to Y Combinator. Do they take applications that are too similar to previous applicants?
- mannyv 7mo agoThere's no expectation of privacy in public areas. That's been the law of the land now for a long time.
- cestith 7mo agoThere’s a difference between happening to be captured on camera if there’s a camera in a public place and having a government agency identify and track you and your vehicle across hundreds of miles of travel.
- neuralRiot 7mo ago>The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Also: >No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Have been the law for a long time too and yet…
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- hnburnsy 7mo agoFunny, you can plainly see them in street view linked from the EFF map... https://maps.app.goo.gl/bGcDQ8v8YhvN3f1q7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/bGcDQ8v8YhvN3f1q7 Here is one in a construction barrel https://maps.app.goo.gl/bakw7KpzRjSuqpwY6 https://maps.app.goo.gl/bakw7KpzRjSuqpwY6
- GarnetFloride 7mo agoHad an amateur radio friend tell me about a time he found something transmitting interference that looked like a pole mounted transformer but it was upside down and not connected to anything. He reported it to the FCC and it vanished in a couple of days.
- ASalazarMX 7mo agoIsn't this the expected outcome when someone reports a device that interferes with communications? They find the owner and the device is fixed or removed.
- nielsbot 7mo ago> “If you’re not doing anything illegal, why worry about it?” said long-time Jacumba resident Allen Stanks, 70. I wonder if Mr Stanks has curtains on his windows… After all, if you’ve got nothing to hide…
- defrost 7mo agoLet's suppose Mr Stanks is one of those rare but not altogether uncommon birds that strides out every morning, stark naked, to organically water his hydrangeas. And..? Mr Stanks curtains isn't the greatest argument or observation here.
- nielsbot 7mo agoWe don't need to cater our argument to outliers
- defrost 6mo agoSpeak for _yourself_ and don't invoke all of us in your Royal We. It was a poor rejoiner on Usenet in the 1980s and it's just as weak today. The arguments for personal privacy across the globe are stronger than the US prudish resisting US prurience.
- _slih 7mo agocalifornia blocked sharing police ALPR data with the feds. so border patrol built their own network on state highway infrastructure instead. the workaround is always simpler than the law it routes around.