173 Lowe’s Parking Lots Are Reading Your License Plate

A quick errand to buy lumber or a light bulb shouldn’t come with a permanent record of where you were and when. But according to records highlighted in the video above — obtained via a public records request to a Texas sheriff’s office and shared by the Electronic Frontier Foundation — automated license plate readers are installed at 173 Lowe’s store locations.

Why a hardware store has a camera network

Retailers increasingly host ALPR cameras in their parking lots, often through partnerships with vendors like Flock Safety. The pitch is simple: deter theft, help police solve crimes committed on or near the property, and give store security a tool to flag vehicles connected to past incidents. On paper, that sounds like ordinary loss prevention.

In practice, ALPR cameras don’t just watch for known bad actors. They photograph every plate that passes, log the time, date, and location, and typically feed that data into a shared network that law enforcement agencies — and sometimes other private companies — can search. A trip to buy paint becomes a data point in a system built to track movement, whether or not you’ve done anything wrong.

Retail parking lots as surveillance infrastructure

What makes this case notable is scale. This isn’t one store testing a pilot program — it’s a network spanning 173 locations, all discovered through a public records request rather than a company announcement. That’s a pattern worth paying attention to: much of what we know about ALPR expansion in the U.S. comes not from disclosure, but from records requests filed by advocacy groups like the EFF. Shoppers rarely get a sign, a notice, or a chance to opt out before their plate is logged.

What this means for you

Even if you’ve never been suspected of a crime, your comings and goings can end up in a database that persists, that can be searched later, and that may be shared beyond the store that installed the camera. The rules governing who can access that data, how long it’s kept, and what it can be used for vary widely and are often unclear even to the retailers hosting the cameras.

What you can do

Start by checking our interactive map to see whether ALPR cameras have been documented near you, including at retail locations. Visit Learn for a plain-language breakdown of how these systems work and who typically operates them. And if you want to push back — whether that’s asking a store manager about their camera policy or contacting local officials — our Take Action page has concrete steps to get started.