EFF's Policy Position on ALPR Surveillance: Eliminate It and Reduce Its Harms
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a formal policy position calling for the elimination of automated license plate reader mass surveillance, arguing that ALPR systems are structurally harmful and cannot be made acceptable through regulation or technical fixes.
Why this matters: Most surveillance debates end with 'add more oversight.' EFF is saying that is not good enough here. ALPRs do not track suspects. They track everyone, all the time, and store that data where police, immigration enforcement, and private companies can search it later. Your driving history becomes a queryable record you never consented to create. The argument that no policy patch can fix this is a serious one. If that is true, the only honest conversation is about getting rid of the systems, not managing them.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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