UPDATE:  Apparently DHS has now canceled their plans for the nefarious database.  Good riddance.  They’ll just do something else unconstitutional instead.

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The ACLU reported in 2012 that license plate readers, mounted on police cars, overpasses, and other locations, were tracking your whereabouts. Even though their stated purpose was to catch stolen cars, vehicles involved in Amber Alerts and other crimes, naturally they’re being used to harass and control regular citizens.  True to form, they’re not just collecting information on criminals, they’re collecting everything, including where your car is going.

“Virginia State Police recorded the license plates of cars attending campaign rallies for President Obama and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 and 2009,” CJ Ciaramella notes in the Washington Free Beacon. “A police officer in Washington, D.C., pled guilty to extortion in 1998 after using ALRP data to blackmail drivers who frequented a local gay bar.”

Of course, with such a large amount of unconstitutional data available for the exploitation of law-abiding citizens, the feds want a piece of the action too.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Ars Technica that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “is exploring the ability to obtain access to a National License Plate Recognition database—allowing officers and agents to identify subjects of ongoing criminal investigations.”

…or keep tabs on anyone else with a car.  The Atlantic explains that ICE is, of course, justifying the whole thing.

“It is important to note that this database would be run by a commercial enterprise,” ICE said, “and the data would be collected and stored by the commercial enterprise, not the government.” Is that supposed to reassure? A private database that’s inaccessible to the government would offer some protections. So would a government database that no private entity could exploit. A database of our movements that is privately held and accessible to the government is the worst possible combination.

You might be thinking that DHS would never actually get this database off the ground.  Problem is, the private industries running the show are already storing the info and sharing it with the government anyway, so you’re still screwed.  Ten years from now, they can tell you where you were on any given day, at any given time.

Time for the breakdown: If you have a cell phone, you’re being tracked.  If you don’t have a cell phone but you have a newer car, you’re being tracked through your car’s GPS.  If you have an older model car or truck without GPS and you don’t have a cell phone, your license plate is still letting the government know where you drive and when you drive there.  And if you have none of those things but you own a computer, credit card, bank account, or home, you’re still being tracked.  The net is tight and the noose tighter.  And the frogs all just keep swimming in the pot, not even wondering why the water’s getting warmer.