Full title too long for HN: Court denies request that it find Flock Safety camera data is exempt from Public Records Act
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/judge-denies-request-to-exemp...
How was all of this data gathered without being a violation?
Another non-paywalled article on the case: https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/investigat...
"We are not legally permitted to blanket surveil/ALPR entire neighborhoods/towns, etc. ...
... and we can't pay a private company to do this for us ...
... but nothing prevents us from paying a private company who is doing it already, to give us that data."
The line between the last two is blurry but also utilized - you can't put out an RFP for a company to capture such data that you're not permitted to, but if that company is doing it because it sees a/your market for it, then it's a free-for-all.
An offhand picture by a private individual is OK, but a large scale organized hoovering of personally identifying information is not OK.
The finding is also the denial of an exemption appeal which has a much lower legal threshold to clear.
Also:
Redmond temporarily suspends use of Flock cameras - https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/redmond-police-depa...
But they don't.
Once my car drove by a Google street view vehicle. I thought it was cool. If a Google street view vehicle (or, nowadays, Amazon truck) drove circles around my neighborhood collecting wearabouts of all cars I'd find that concerning.
The way these camera systems are set up is tantamount to an ankle monitor. Who wants to live like that?
The ruling in Carpenter is essentially that you can't have prolonged surveillance without a warrant.
[1] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
[0] https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69288422/schmidt-v-city...
Absolutely. Govs fight transparency to hide their actions - ultimately so they can avoid accountability.
> We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time. For any issues, contact classified@skagitpublishing.com or call 360-424-3251.
Expectation of privacy generally comes from taking steps to preserve it. If you put curtains on your windows, any rando can't install a hidden camera in your house to see what's happening behind them. If you don't install curtains on your windows, any rando can stand in the street and see what they see.
The government prohibits you from concealing the number plate on your car. They can't reasonably prohibit you from doing the thing that would establish an expectation of privacy and then use the fact that you didn't do it to say that you don't have one.