Oh...So You Want To Play That Game? We Can Do It Too You Know...

 In our society, it is a core principle that the government does not invade people’s privacy and collect information about citizens’ innocent activities just in case they do something wrong.

 Clear regulations must be put in place to keep the government from tracking our movements on a massive scale.

A little noticed surveillance technology, designed to track the movements of every passing driver, is fast proliferating on America’s streets. Automatic license plate readers, mounted on police cars or on objects like road signs and bridges, use small, high-speed cameras to photograph thousands of plates per minute.

The information captured by the readers – including the license plate number, and the date, time, and location of every scan – is being collected and sometimes pooled into regional sharing systems.

As a result, enormous databases of innocent motorists’ location information are growing rapidly.

This information is often retained for years or even indefinitely, with few or no restrictions to protect privacy rights.

Automated license plate readers have become a serious point of contention between law enforcement and privacy-minded citizens.

 But the advance of technology might make it a moot point — with some open source software and a cheap webcam, anyone can now start cataloging the cars visiting their street.

 A two-man team developed OpenALPR and started distributing it for free, along with the source code. 

 Law enforcement and the agencies that build their plate scanners have argued in favor of the legality of such data collection, so it's not like they can suddenly start cracking down on private citizens doing the same.

 "An enterprising person could even use a car-mounted camera and create a mobile plate hunting device along the lines of what many police agencies already use." 

Is this particular privacy fight one that's still winnable?