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.

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.

While public debate about the license reading technology has centered
on how police should use it, business has eagerly adopted the $10,000
to $17,000 scanners with remarkably few limits.

....Digital Recognition Network of Fort Worth, Texas, claims to collect
plate scans of 40 percent of all US vehicles annually.

Digital Recognition Network, with the help of about 400 repossession
companies across the United States, has increased the number of
*license scans in its database tenfold since September 2010, and the
firm continues to add another 70 million scans per month, according to
company disclosures. Digital Recognition's top rival, Illinois-based
MVTRAC, has not disclosed the size of its database, but claimed in a
2012 Wall Street Journal interview to have scans of "a large majority"
of vehicles registered in the United States.

Unlike law enforcement agencies, which often have policies to purge
their computers of license records after a certain period of time, the
data brokers are under no such obligation, meaning their databases
grow and gain value over time as a way to track individuals’ movements
and whereabouts.

Massachusetts private investigator Jay Groob said he uses the license
plate database kept by a third data broker, TLOxp, paying $25 for a
comprehensive report from the Florida-based company’s "very
impressive" database of a billion-plus scans.

Groob said he would use the database to track a missing person or
conduct background inves*tigations for child custody or marital
infidelity litigation. Groob said he "absolutely" foresees vehicle
location data becom*ing part of private investigators’ standard toolkit.

Entire article at

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/03/0...repo-industry/

On 3/6/2014 9:26 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:20:12 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:



Unlike law enforcement agencies, which often have policies to purge
their computers of license records after a certain period of time, the
data brokers are under no such obligation, meaning their databases
grow and gain value over time as a way to track individuals movements
and whereabouts.

Massachusetts private investigator Jay Groob said he uses the license
plate database kept by a third data broker, TLOxp, paying $25 for a
comprehensive report from the Florida-based companys "very
impressive" database of a billion-plus scans.

Groob said he would use the database to track a missing person or
conduct background invesÂ*tigations for child custody or marital
infidelity litigation. Groob said he "absolutely" foresees vehicle
location data becomÂ*ing part of private investigators standard toolkit.

Entire article at

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/03/0...repo-industry/


If you use credit/debit/loyalty cards, "big data" knows where you go
and what you bought there anyway.


Yes, but anyone with the money can buy access to these databases and
use it for whatever purpose they wish. If you have somebody who really
doesn't like you, imagine what they could do to/with you using those
resources. There's nothing stopping nuts and stalkers from buying
information on the people they're obsessed with.

On 3/6/2014 11:12 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
On 3/6/2014 9:26 AM, wrote:
If you use credit/debit/loyalty cards, "big data" knows where you go
and what you bought there anyway.


Yes, but anyone with the money can buy access to these databases and use
it for whatever purpose they wish. If you have somebody who really
doesn't like you, imagine what they could do to/with you using those
resources. There's nothing stopping nuts and stalkers from buying
information on the people they're obsessed with.

Maybe Elvis Presley isn't dead? Let me know if
you find Marilyn Monroe, or the actress who did
Dixie McCall, oh, wait, Julie London.

--
..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 3/6/2014 11:08 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:12:26 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:

On 3/6/2014 9:26 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:20:12 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:



Unlike law enforcement agencies, which often have policies to purge
their computers of license records after a certain period of time, the
data brokers are under no such obligation, meaning their databases
grow and gain value over time as a way to track individuals movements
and whereabouts.

Massachusetts private investigator Jay Groob said he uses the license
plate database kept by a third data broker, TLOxp, paying $25 for a
comprehensive report from the Florida-based companys "very
impressive" database of a billion-plus scans.

Groob said he would use the database to track a missing person or
conduct background invesÂ*tigations for child custody or marital
infidelity litigation. Groob said he "absolutely" foresees vehicle
location data becomÂ*ing part of private investigators standard toolkit.

Entire article at

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/03/0...repo-industry/


If you use credit/debit/loyalty cards, "big data" knows where you go
and what you bought there anyway.


Yes, but anyone with the money can buy access to these databases and
use it for whatever purpose they wish. If you have somebody who really
doesn't like you, imagine what they could do to/with you using those
resources. There's nothing stopping nuts and stalkers from buying
information on the people they're obsessed with.

I am not quite sure how much damage they could do to me by knowing
where I shop.

They also know where you live, where you work, how much you earn, how
much sick and vacation leave you earn and use, where you get your
insurance, what deductions are taken from your check (and for what),
what kind of car you drive, where your car is frequently located, what
you've been buying.

So if an employer doesn't want to hire a smoker, or a gun owner, or
anybody else whose personal preferences he doesn't support, it makes
it easier to screen applicants. Easier also to identify current
employees as potential risks - do they buy a lot of booze? Charge a
lot of prescription meds? Buy a lot of weapons? Oops, better keep an
eye on them. Better still, let them go. Too risky.
All of that is perfectly legal, too. There are no laws against
discriminating against people on the basis of what they buy or use.

If I had a mistress or a dope dealer
I wouldn't park in front of their house anyway. ;-)

Insurance companies are using the license plate data to determine if
people are lying to them about the use of properties they're insuring.
For instance, if a person claims it's a vacation property, they're
looking to see if the owners are actually using it as their primary
residence. Or if there's a regular listing of plates that don't belong
to the owner, it suggests they're using it as a rental.

On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:12:26 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:

On 3/6/2014 9:26 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:20:12 -0600, Moe DeLoughan
wrote:



Unlike law enforcement agencies, which often have policies to purge
their computers of license records after a certain period of time, the
data brokers are under no such obligation, meaning their databases
grow and gain value over time as a way to track individuals’ movements
and whereabouts.

Massachusetts private investigator Jay Groob said he uses the license
plate database kept by a third data broker, TLOxp, paying $25 for a
comprehensive report from the Florida-based company’s "very
impressive" database of a billion-plus scans.

Groob said he would use the database to track a missing person or
conduct background inves*tigations for child custody or marital
infidelity litigation. Groob said he "absolutely" foresees vehicle
location data becom*ing part of private investigators’ standard toolkit.

Entire article at

http://betaboston.com/news/2014/03/0...repo-industry/


If you use credit/debit/loyalty cards, "big data" knows where you go
and what you bought there anyway.


Yes, but anyone with the money can buy access to these databases and
use it for whatever purpose they wish. If you have somebody who really
doesn't like you, imagine what they could do to/with you using those
resources. There's nothing stopping nuts and stalkers from buying
information on the people they're obsessed with.

Anyone with money has always had access to resources since money came
into use. So what?

Moe DeLoughan wrote:

Digital Recognition Network of Fort Worth, Texas, claims to collect
plate scans of 40 percent of all US vehicles annually.
Digital Recognition's top rival, Illinois-based MVTRAC, has not
disclosed the size of its database, but claimed in a 2012 Wall
Street Journal interview to have scans of "a large majority"
of vehicles registered in the United States.

Like other industries such as prisons (aka "corrections"), here in
Canada there is no commercial viability for a privately-operated
car-tracking service like that.

You do realize why such a service would be economically viable in the US
- right?

Because your next bubble to burst will be either student loans - or car
loans. You've been busy handing out money to any moron that can breath
so he can buy a new car, and your repo men are very busy. We don't give
car loans to dead beats here in Canada (not that there are lot of
deadbeats).

And now I read that the sub-prime mortgage is back in the USA! You
never learn - do you?

Your banks still have an enormous stockpile of forclosed homes that
they've held off the market - to keep the market from imploding. It's a
sad way to prop up home prices - and it won't work forever.

On 03/06/2014 10:17 PM, Home Guy wrote:
Because your next bubble to burst will be either student loans - or car
loans. You've been busy handing out money to any moron that can breath
so he can buy a new car, and your repo men are very busy. We don't give
car loans to dead beats here in Canada (not that there are lot of
deadbeats).


Bad credit? No problem...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1JsgPHIiU0