Calif. company builds database of private cars' locations

[Newsjock]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/12/MN4M1MO45J.DTL

Capitalizing on one of the fastest-growing trends in law enforcement, a private company in Livermore has compiled a database bulging with more than 550 million bits of information that let police know when and where specific license plates of both innocent and criminal drivers were spotted.

... While privacy rules restrict what police can do with their own databases, Vigilant Video, headquartered in Livermore, offers a loophole. It's a private business that is not required to operate by those same rules.

The company sells its own brand of license plate readers and has customers around the nation, including the cities of Springfield, Ill.; Kings Point, N.Y.; and Orange, Conn. But Vigilant distinguished itself from competitors by going one step further and collecting hundreds of millions of scans to create what is known as the National Vehicle Location Service.

... Additional records are flowing in from private auto repossession companies that specialize in tracking down debtors no longer making payments on their cars. Imagine tow trucks armed with scanners cruising through apartment complexes and along residential streets, simultaneously searching for delinquent borrowers and generating new leads if a motorist in the future stops paying his or her note.

[Zalatix]

1. Stalkers, too. It's a stalker's paradise.

[lpbk2713]

3. Just the thing for a homicidal psychopathic ex-spouse.

All they need is a few bucks to pay for the service.

[atreides1]

2. Another future collaborator

More and more each day these "private" companies show how much of a danger they really are to the freedoms we still possess...we rant against the government...but do very little to put these future collaborators in check!

Maybe instead of looking at the obvious we need to pay attention to companies like this that would sell other Americans out to make a buck!