New Eyes on the Street: Cameras That Can Detect What’s in Your Pocket
Leonardo is adding sensors to license plate recognition cameras to identify phones and smartwatches, creating a system that cross-references vehicles with devices and produces a “fingerprint” for tracking people, privacy experts warn.
The international security company Leonardo is unveiling a new and controversial technology that could reshape civilian surveillance as we know it. According to a report published by the U.S. news site 404 Media, the company has added sensors to automatic license plate recognition, or ALPR, cameras that can capture unique identifiers from a range of electronic devices inside vehicles.
The new system, called SignalTrace, no longer limits itself to recording the license plate. It performs smart cross-checking between the license plate and the electronic “signatures” of devices in the vehicle, from mobile phones and Bluetooth headphones to smartwatches and pet chips. In this way, it effectively creates an “electronic fingerprint” that allows law enforcement to track a specific person even if they change vehicles or remove the license plate.
According to the company’s official documents, the algorithm can identify which devices consistently move together with the vehicle. The data is stored in a central operations center and allows investigators to run queries and future analyses in real time.
“The technology turns cameras from a tool for monitoring vehicles into a tool capable of tracking people,” industry experts warn.
Leonardo, which supplies advanced equipment to security bodies, U.S. Special Operations Command, and government agencies, is now at the center of a public storm. While the company has remained silent and did not respond to the site’s inquiry, privacy experts are expressing deep concern about the scope of data collection.
As noted, this is not the first company to try to bridge the gap between the vehicle and the driver. In Israel, for example, drivers found creative ways to deal with smart cameras that identified phone use, by posting reports in the Waze app about “ice on the road” in places where the cameras were installed. But the current technological ability to identify personal devices inside a vehicle represents a significant escalation in surveillance of ordinary citizens.
The new system raises complex questions about the balance between security and privacy. While law enforcement agencies argue that the technology is necessary to prevent crime and locate offenders, privacy experts warn about misuse of the information and the lack of public oversight over the extent of the surveillance.
It should be noted that there have previously been exposed cases of attempts to deceive cameras by forging license plates, but the new technology may make such efforts much more difficult, since it identifies the person through their personal devices and not only through the vehicle.
