A vast hidden surveillance network runs across America, powered by the repo industry

[n2doc]

Few notice the “spotter car” from Manny Sousa’s repo company as it scours Massachusetts parking lots, looking for vehicles whose owners have defaulted on their loans. Sousa’s unmarked car is part of a technological revolution that goes well beyond the repossession business, transforming any ­industry that wants to check on the whereabouts of ordinary people.

An automated reader attached to the spotter car takes a picture of every license plate it passes and sends it to a company in Texas that already has more than 1.8 billion plate scans from vehicles across the country.

These scans mean big money for Sousa — typically $200 to $400 every time the spotter finds a vehicle that’s stolen or in default — so he runs his spotter around the clock, typically adding 8,000 plate scans to the database in Texas each day.

“Honestly, we’ve found random apartment complexes and shopping ­plazas that are sweet spots” where the company can impound multiple vehicles, explains Sousa, the president of New England Associates Inc. in Bridgewater.

But the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to ­insurers are willing to pay for.

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http://betaboston.com/news/2014/03/05/a-vast-hidden-surveillance-network-runs-across-america-powered-by-the-repo-industry/

[jsr]

1. This is a must read.

[cantbeserious]

2. Thank You For Sharing

eom

[Savannahmann]

3. Disturbing

[Blue_Tires]

4. Thanks for this

I was wondering if the discussion would *ever* get around to corporate invasions of privacy.,..

[MineralMan]

5. Interesting. We're often concerned about government surveillance,

but this kind of commercial surveillance should worry us more. The government actually has very little interest in individual people, for the most part. Commercial organizations, however, have much reason to be interested in the doings of individuals. Business has similar technology to that used by governments, too.

Vehicle license plate scanning is used by police departments and other government agencies, primarily to spot stolen cars or vehicles owned by people who have outstanding warrants. In this case, a repo company is looking for cars that are owned by people who haven't made their car payments. In both cases, some action could be taken by either.

However, other commercial surveillance isn't tied to problematic behavior by individuals. Google and many more businesses constantly collect information about just about everyone. They don't want to arrest you or repossess your possessions. Instead, they want to sell you something. Such commercial surveillance is far more intrusive and extensive, and is the surveillance most of us should worry about, rather than this repo company or even the government.

Commercial surveillance will have far more impact on individuals that either of those other types.

[snooper2]

6. I follow reponut on YouTube

He's been doing it for over 20 years...

It's a lot of research, driving, waiting, and having contacts to do skip traces- If he was able to have somebody scan every plate everywhere I'm sure he would. Been following him on YouTube for a couple years, every single person, "I just made a payment" LOL

#aid=P-5l41ufpMk

[FarCenter]

7. The private security business is bigger than law enforcement

[Vashta Nerada]

8. This is disturbing on so many levels.

How can corporations get away with this?

[fasttense]

9. So, they are allowed to spy on you

record where you are at certain times of day, on the off chance that you might have not paid a bill?

Since when is paying a bill the magic bullet allowing unfettered access to your movements? Hey, I can spy on you because I'm checking on unpaid bills. Seems corporate profit is more important than the Constitution. Corporations will make that guy who doesn't pay his bill suffer, and all you folks who do pay, too bad, your whereabouts are under investigation too.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

10. Corporate profit is more important than

anything! USA! USA!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

11. It's more important than the mailbox rule.

Mailbox rule: The day I mailed it is the day it is legally considered paid, NOT the day you received it. This is what happens when you make payments ON TIME. You get dun letters.

Usurious, greedy, psychopathic bastards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mailbox_rule

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

12. Well, that may be the rule, but the company will say its late and penalize you and good luck

fighting it.

Our health insurance company just deducted twice what we owed them because they went by the invoice from two and a half weeks earlier that said we hadn't paid last month's premium.

However, we had paid it, but the company was too cheap to hire enough people to handle all the extra business Obamacare has brought them and so couldn't process our payment right away. But, it had been processed--they had the payment--a whole ten days before the automatic payment was deducted for the following month. When I signed up for automatic monthly payments, I assumed I was signing up for them to deduct the amount of the monthly premium, not whatever amount their outdated records indicated we owed them.

Now we're waiting for them to refund us. They say it could take weeks. They said we could just let them keep the money and they'd use it to pay the next month's premium. We said no. Send us our fking money. And unenrolled from auto pay.

Greedy bastards.

[fasttense]

13. That's why unless there is absolutely no other way,

I wont let any agency do automatic deductions from my accounts. You should hear some of the horror stories about Bank of America here on DU. They take the credit card payments right out of accounts even without authorization. Then there are the time delays which cause double payments both for starting up an automatic withdraw and for stopping. And if you move a lot, your bills can get seriously messed up.

When I was very young and foolish I allowed a life insurance company to take deductions right out of my account. The next thing I knew, double payments were coming out of my account regularly. I stopped it by going to the banks manager but that was the last time I ever allowed automatic deductions.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

14. That's such BS! Of course they get away with it. They can take our money with no consequences

to them, and they can take their good old time reimbursing us, but if we're one day late with our payment they hit us you with a fat fee. One of the many reasons it boggles my mind that our corporate overlords get so much support from non millionaires, even here on DU!

Still waiting for that money to be put back in our account. Funny how it's nowhere near the lightning speed with which they could take it out of our account.

[fasttense]

15. You have a point there.

If the rich elites that rule our economy really want our money (and they do), they will take it much like in Cyprus.