BLUF: Three civil liberties groups in California have demanded that 71 police agencies stop sharing automated license plate reader data with out-of-state law enforcement agencies because it violates California law and could pose a risk to reproductive health privacy.
Seventy-one California police agencies have been found to share Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data with law enforcement agencies in other states, which violates California law and could threaten reproductive health privacy. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU NorCal), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) are demanding that these agencies comply with California law by June 15th. The sensitive information gathered and stored by ALPR cameras includes location data, such as where individuals work and live. Sharing this data with law enforcement agencies in states that criminalize abortion violates California’s extensive efforts to protect reproductive health privacy. This could undermine efforts to protect people access reproductive health services in California, as anti-abortion states might use this data to monitor abortion clinics and patients in those clinics, violating their privacy. Agencies in 22 counties have received these letters, and Idaho, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas are among the states that received ALPR data from these agencies.Source…