As we’ve said before, this kind of license plate data is location data - it tells the data gatherer where you’ve been and when, and can be aggregated to present a detailed picture of your life and who you associate with- whether you’re at a lawful protest or house of worship a gay bar or your doctor’s office your brother’s house or your lover’s. This is the first time any federal agency has proposed a database of this size and scope, and this 'National License Plate Recognition' program raises significant privacy concerns.

Not only would this database include plate data collected by DHS - it would also include data from other law enforcement agencies and private companies. The Department of Homeland Security and its component Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently issued a solicitation for bids to build and maintain a national database of motor vehicle license plate data. Like the ACLU, we'll be interested to see whether DHS and ICE release more information about their plans-and we'll continue to push back on any future attempts to create a federally-accessible national license plate database. According to documents obtained by the ACLU of Massachusetts, ICE agents and other branches of DHS have been tapping into Vigilant’s data sets for years. However, DHS may still be accessing national license plate data-collected by the private company Vigilant Solutions-on an ad hoc basis. According to an Immigration & Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, the solicitation 'was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership' and 'will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets operational needs.” According to the Washington Post, just days after the story broke, DHS shelved its plans to create or tap into a national database of license plate recognition data.

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