EFF Members' Speakeasy: Police Surveillance and ALPR

Our Take

This recording is a few years old at this point, but don't let the date fool you — the core warning from EFF's Dave Maass and Saira Hussain holds up better than most tech predictions from 2021. Back then they were already flagging how automated license plate readers quietly vacuum up location data on ordinary drivers who've done nothing wrong, and how that data gets shared, sold, and pooled across agencies with little oversight. Since then, Flock Safety has scaled that exact problem into a nationwide network, which makes this EFF conversation feel less like a history lesson and more like a preview.

What we appreciate about this format — a members' speakeasy, informal Q&A and all — is that it treats ALPR surveillance as a policy fight, not just a tech curiosity. Maass has spent years filing records requests and building EFF's own tracking tools, and Hussain brings the legal angle on how these systems intersect with due process and Fourth Amendment protections. That combination matters because the ALPR debate isn't just "is this camera watching me," it's "who gets to see where I've been, for how long, and under what rules," and right now the honest answer in most towns is: almost nobody is checking.

Credit to EFForg for keeping this material accessible to members instead of locking it behind a paywall or a conference badge. If this video gets you thinking about what's parked on your own street corner, check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and head to our take-action page if you want to push back on a city council near you.