CT lawmakers demanding answers from Home Depot, Lowe’s on license plate cameras, data sharing

Our Take

Here's the part that should bother you most: you didn't go to Home Depot to be surveilled. You went to buy lumber or a new faucet. But WFSB 3's reporting shows Connecticut lawmakers now demanding answers about why big-box retailers are running license plate reader cameras in their lots and what happens to that data afterward. Good. Someone should have asked years ago.

This is the quiet expansion of ALPR surveillance that rarely gets attention — not just cop cars and toll gantries, but private corporations hoovering up your movements under the guise of "loss prevention." Once that plate data exists, questions multiply fast: Who can access it? Is it sold? Shared with police without a warrant? Retained indefinitely? Retailers love to stay vague on these points, and vague is exactly how mass surveillance networks grow unchecked.

Credit to WFSB 3 for pushing this story into the open and to the lawmakers willing to put retailers on the record. Connecticut shoppers deserve to know if Home Depot's parking lot has become another node in the sprawling plate-tracking grid. Check our camera map to see what's already been documented near you, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR expansion, visit our take-action page for concrete next steps.