THE NOOSE TIGHTENS

Your license plate may be an open book

A CAR SAYS a lot about its owner, perhaps a lot more than the owner might suspect.

In an extensive examination of automated license-plate tracking technology, The Wall Street Journal reports that the new tracking devices have the capacity to do more than a one-shot confirmation whether a car is legally registered but over time build a picture of the driver’s habits, travel routes and destinations.

And there is now the capacity to store the information cheaply and in huge quantities. One plate-tracking company, according to the Journal, has 700 million scans on record.

As the cost of plate-tracking technology has dropped, more and more police departments are acquiring the devices — more than one-third of large U.S. police agencies in 2012 by one estimate — many of them paid for by the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, the camera and software technology to photograph and read license plates has improved dramatically.

Law enforcement agencies say they use the devices to identify stolen cars, ticket scofflaws and track the vehicles of suspected criminals.

THE PRIVACY implications are chilling, especially to the International Association of Chiefs of Police that cautioned the devices can record “vehicles parked at addiction counseling meetings, doctors’ offices, health clinics or even staging areas for protests.”

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