Once you get past the jokes ("Trash Stalking," one wit called it), the idea of equipping garbage trucks in San Jose with license plate readers for the police settles with a thud. It's a bad and intrusive idea.
First proposed by Councilman Johnny Khamis -- and endorsed for exploration by Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilman Raul Peralez -- the idea is to let the trucks record the plates and locations of every vehicle along their routes.
With the license plate numbers, the advocates say, the police can quickly identify stolen cars and deter thieves.
But the cost to our privacy -- our notion of how to lead our lives without government interference -- runs unacceptably high. This idea should be buried as soon as possible in the nearest unmarked grave.
Khamis proposed the license plate readers on the garbage trucks for a rational reason. Unlike regular city vehicles, they traverse every city street every week.
"I got this idea from a police captain, and I thought it was a great idea," Khamis said last week at a meeting of the council's rules committee. "We're merely looking for advice to see if it's doable."
INTIMATE DETAILS
Here's the problem, well-enunciated by Chris Conley, a policy attorney for the ACLU. If this is done repeatedly and over a long time, it can reveal intimate details of anyone's life.
Was that you who parked outside a gun store five times in the last month? Was that your car outside the gay bar or in the parking lot of the bail bondsman? Why did you visit a gang neighborhood last week?
If the technology is good enough, it might reveal a history of your behavior and habits in the last year. And that information is both powerful and dangerous.
Liccardo said at the council's rules meeting that there is no expectation of privacy on a public street. That doesn't mean the government should monitor all your moves.
"There's a huge difference between the idea that when you're walking down the street, you may be seen by a neighbor, and the notion that someone is recording everything you're doing," Conley says.
PROTECTING DATA
And that's only the beginning. With information this valuable, there's a question about how securely it's maintained. What kind of protection is there against hackers?
For that matter, who will see this information aside from police? Will it be given to the IRS or the FBI? What if it's legally demanded by divorce attorneys wanting evidence?
If you began with a list of the license plates of stolen cars, and the reader said only yes or no (green or red) as the truck passed, it might be acceptable. This is technology directed to a narrow purpose.
Without that limitation, this is a dangerous idea. We have other ways of recovering stolen vehicles, among them through GPS devices or old cell phones hidden in your car.
"I'm a big fan of technology," said Councilman Chappie Jones, who was the lone dissenter in the 4-1 rules vote last week to explore the issue. "But this particular proposal is a little too extreme. It almost feels like 1984."
Amen, Mr. Jones. Only there's no "almost" about it.
