0:00:01.329,0:00:03.527
The shocking police[br]crackdown

0:00:03.527,0:00:05.702
on protestors in [br]Ferguson, Missouri,

0:00:05.702,0:00:08.729
in the wake of the police [br]shooting of Michael Brown,

0:00:08.729,0:00:12.952
underscored the extent to which advanced[br]military weapons and equipment,

0:00:12.952,0:00:14.684
designed for the battlefield,

0:00:14.684,0:00:15.993
are making their way

0:00:15.993,0:00:19.874
to small-town police departments[br]across the United States.

0:00:20.704,0:00:22.500
Although much tougher to observe,

0:00:22.500,0:00:26.047
this same thing is happening [br]with surveillance equipment.

0:00:26.047,0:00:28.707
NSA-style mass [br]surveillance is enabling

0:00:28.707,0:00:31.665
local police departments [br]to gather vast quantities

0:00:31.665,0:00:35.232
of sensitive information[br]about each and every one of us

0:00:35.232,0:00:39.284
in a way that was[br]never previously possible.

0:00:39.284,0:00:42.760
Location information can [br]be very sensitive.

0:00:42.760,0:00:45.391
If you drive your car around[br]the United States,

0:00:45.391,0:00:47.314
it can reveal if you go [br]to a therapist,

0:00:47.314,0:00:49.782
attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting,

0:00:49.782,0:00:52.603
if you go to church [br]or if you don't go to church.

0:00:52.603,0:00:54.329
And when that [br]information about you

0:00:54.329,0:00:56.354
is combined with the same[br]information

0:00:56.354,0:00:57.807
about everyone else,

0:00:57.807,0:01:00.398
the government can gain a[br]detailed portrait

0:01:00.398,0:01:03.114
of how private citizens interact.

0:01:03.114,0:01:05.589
This information used to be private.

0:01:05.589,0:01:07.282
Thanks to modern technology,

0:01:07.282,0:01:09.010
the government knows [br]far too much

0:01:09.010,0:01:11.580
about what happens[br]behind closed doors.

0:01:11.580,0:01:15.998
And local police departments make decisions[br]about who they think you are

0:01:15.998,0:01:19.169
based on this information.

0:01:19.169,0:01:23.816
One of the key technologies [br]driving mass-location tracking

0:01:23.816,0:01:26.774
is the innocuous-sounding[br]Automatic License Plate Reader.

0:01:26.774,0:01:28.469
If you haven't seen one,

0:01:28.469,0:01:31.657
it's probably because you didn't[br]know what to look for

0:01:31.657,0:01:33.032
--they're everywhere.

0:01:33.032,0:01:36.104
Mounted on roads or [br]on police cars,

0:01:36.104,0:01:40.533
Automatic License Plate Readers[br]capture images of every passing car

0:01:40.533,0:01:42.048
and convert the license plate

0:01:42.048,0:01:44.158
into machine-readable text

0:01:44.158,0:01:47.560
so that they can be checked[br]against hot lists

0:01:47.560,0:01:50.845
of cars potentially wanted[br]for wrongdoing.

0:01:50.845,0:01:53.082
But more than that, increasingly,

0:01:53.082,0:01:56.012
local police departments are [br]keeping records not just

0:01:56.012,0:01:58.282
of people wanted [br]for wrongdoing,

0:01:58.282,0:02:01.084
but of every plate that [br]passes them by,

0:02:01.084,0:02:05.053
resulting in the collection[br]of mass quantities of data

0:02:05.053,0:02:07.294
about where Americans [br]have gone.

0:02:07.294,0:02:10.092
Did you know this[br]was happening?

0:02:10.092,0:02:13.228
When Mike Katz-Lacabe asked[br]his local police department

0:02:13.228,0:02:16.657
for information about the Plate[br]Reader data they had on him,

0:02:16.657,0:02:18.335
this is what they got:

0:02:18.335,0:02:21.477
in addition to the date, [br]time and location,

0:02:21.477,0:02:24.508
the police department had [br]photographs that captured

0:02:24.508,0:02:27.898
where he was going and [br]often, who he was with.

0:02:27.898,0:02:29.490
The second photo [br]from the top

0:02:29.490,0:02:31.923
is a picture of Mike and[br]his two daughters

0:02:31.923,0:02:35.552
getting out of their car[br]in their own driveway.

0:02:35.552,0:02:38.690
The government has [br]hundreds of photos like this

0:02:38.690,0:02:41.111
about Mike going about [br]his daily life.

0:02:41.111,0:02:43.295
And if you drive a car [br]in the United States,

0:02:43.295,0:02:46.028
I would bet money [br]that they have photographs

0:02:46.028,0:02:49.386
like this of you going[br]about your daily life.

0:02:49.386,0:02:51.087
Mike hasn't done[br]anything wrong.

0:02:51.087,0:02:52.704
Why is it okay that [br]the government

0:02:52.704,0:02:55.032
is keeping all of[br]this information?

0:02:55.032,0:02:56.721
The reason it's happening[br]is because

0:02:56.721,0:03:00.072
as the cost of storing[br]this data has plummeted,

0:03:00.072,0:03:02.824
the police departments[br]simply hang on to it,

0:03:02.824,0:03:06.676
just in case it could be [br]useful someday.

0:03:06.676,0:03:09.546
The issue is not just that[br]one police department

0:03:09.546,0:03:11.487
is gathering this information[br]in isolation,

0:03:11.487,0:03:14.246
or even that multiple police [br]departments are doing it.

0:03:14.246,0:03:16.743
At the same time, [br]the Federal Government

0:03:16.743,0:03:20.361
is collecting all of these[br]individual pots of data,

0:03:20.361,0:03:23.882
and pooling them together [br]into one vast database

0:03:23.882,0:03:25.598
with hundreds of [br]millions of hits

0:03:25.598,0:03:28.006
showing where Americans[br]have traveled.

0:03:28.006,0:03:30.964
This document from the [br]Federal Drug Enforcement Administration,

0:03:30.964,0:03:33.729
which is one of the agencies[br]primarily interested in this,

0:03:33.729,0:03:38.386
is one of several that reveal [br]the existence of this database.

0:03:38.386,0:03:40.735
Meanwhile, in New York City,

0:03:40.735,0:03:42.977
the NYPD has driven police cars

0:03:42.977,0:03:44.674
equipped with License Plate Readers

0:03:44.674,0:03:48.851
past mosques in order to[br]figure out who is attending.

0:03:48.851,0:03:50.845
The uses and abuses [br]of this technology

0:03:50.845,0:03:53.249
aren't limited to the United States.

0:03:53.249,0:03:55.974
In the UK, the police department

0:03:55.974,0:04:00.258
put 80-year-old John Kat[br]on a Plate Reader watch list

0:04:00.258,0:04:04.395
after he had attended dozens of[br]lawful political demonstrations

0:04:04.395,0:04:08.771
where he liked to sit on a bench[br]and sketch the attendees.

0:04:08.771,0:04:12.293
License Plate Readers aren't the[br]only mass-location tracking technology

0:04:12.293,0:04:15.099
available to law enforcement[br]agents today.

0:04:15.099,0:04:17.461
Through a technique known as[br]a Cell Tower Dump,

0:04:17.461,0:04:20.923
law enforcement agents can[br]uncover who was using

0:04:20.923,0:04:23.258
one or more cell towers[br]at a particular time,

0:04:23.258,0:04:25.050
a technique which [br]has known to reveal

0:04:25.050,0:04:26.911
the location of [br]tens of thousands

0:04:26.911,0:04:29.809
and even hundreds [br]of thousands of people.

0:04:29.809,0:04:32.549
Also, using a device [br]known as a Sting Ray,

0:04:32.549,0:04:35.185
law enforcement agents[br]can send tracking signals

0:04:35.185,0:04:37.112
inside people's houses

0:04:37.112,0:04:39.860
to identify the cell phones [br]located there.

0:04:39.860,0:04:41.992
And if they don't know[br]which house to target,

0:04:41.992,0:04:43.149
they've been known to drive

0:04:43.149,0:04:47.324
this technology around through[br]whole neighborhoods.

0:04:47.324,0:04:52.060
Just as the police in Ferguson possess[br]high-tech military weapons and equipment,

0:04:52.060,0:04:55.042
so too do police departments across[br]the United States

0:04:55.042,0:04:57.687
possess high-tech surveillance gear.

0:04:57.687,0:04:59.408
Just because you don't see it,

0:04:59.408,0:05:02.043
doesn't mean it's not there.

0:05:02.043,0:05:04.564
The question is, what should[br]we do about this?

0:05:04.564,0:05:07.654
I think this poses a serious[br]civil liberties threat.

0:05:07.654,0:05:09.406
History has shown that once

0:05:09.406,0:05:12.087
the police have massive [br]quantities of data,

0:05:12.087,0:05:14.515
tracking the movements [br]of innocent people,

0:05:14.515,0:05:17.097
it gets abused, maybe [br]for blackmail,

0:05:17.097,0:05:18.821
maybe for political advantage,

0:05:18.821,0:05:21.030
or maybe for [br]simple voyeurism.

0:05:21.030,0:05:23.492
Fortunately, there are[br]steps we can take.

0:05:23.492,0:05:27.072
Local police departments can [br]be governed by the city councils,

0:05:27.072,0:05:29.687
which can pass laws[br]requiring the police

0:05:29.687,0:05:32.468
to dispose of the data [br]about innocent people

0:05:32.468,0:05:34.958
while allowing the legitimate[br]uses of the technology

0:05:34.958,0:05:36.079
to go forward.

0:05:36.079,0:05:36.993
Thank you.

0:05:36.993,0:05:41.424
(Applause).