There is an advanced car and driver monitoring system in the USA

The Associated Press revealed that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is conducting a preventive surveillance program, monitoring millions of drivers far from the country's borders. Detentions, inspections, wiretappings and arrests in the interior of the country cover not only illegal migrants but also US citizens.

An extensive network of license plate readers, some of which are hidden in devices placed along the roads, feeds an algorithm that analyzes origin, driving direction and routes. Drivers stopped for minor offenses often don't know that a federal alert has just been triggered.

The program was created a decade ago to combat human trafficking, but has grown rapidly in recent years. CBP obtains information from, among others: from DEA (anti-drug trafficking agency) databases, from private companies and local services financed from federal funds. According to the documents, agencies in Texas have even sought permission to use the facial recognition system.

The program's expansion marks the transformation of CBP's operations into “something more akin to a national intelligence operation” supported by billions of dollars in surveillance technology. Monitoring also reaches Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles, and some cameras are placed over 190 km from the border, outside the standard control zone – writes the AP agency. Former officials say CBP tried to keep details of the operation secret.

According to CBP, advanced surveillance systems currently in use identify threats and operate legally “anywhere in the United States.” However, lawyers warn that ““surveillance technology on such a large scale that involves recording everyone, everywhere, at all times,” may violate the Fourth Amendment.

– They collect huge amounts of information about who people are, where they go, what they do and who they know. (…) Such systems do not increase society's safety, warns Nicole Ozer from the American Civil Rights Union (ACLU).

In an extensive text, AP describes cases where agents shared social media user profiles, home addresses, identified drivers of rental cars and shared services, and aggressively asked about personal relationships and work. There have also been cases of detention of cash holders on charges of money laundering.

Andrzej Dobrowolski from New York (PAP)

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