This article was originally published in 2023 and is now updated with privacy concerns associated with ALPR technology, after reports that misconfigured ALPR cameras exposed livestreams of vehicles and their data to the Internet.
This article was originally published in 2023 and is now updated with privacy concerns associated with ALPR technology, after reports that misconfigured ALPR cameras exposed livestreams of vehicles and their data to the Internet.
Urbanization has become a global trend as people migrate to cities. Inevitably, this has led to various problems facing cities, including traffic congestion, crime and pollution. As cities face manpower and resource constraints, they turn to smart city solutions to make their metropolises safer, cleaner and more livable. One technology that can help cities become smarter and safer is automatic license plate recognition, or ALPR.
ALPR recognizes a vehicle’s license plate number, which is the unique identifier to any vehicle. More advanced ALPR can even recognize a vehicle’s make, model and color. As such ALPR has a range of smart city applications, helping make cities more competitive, efficient and sustainable. We take a closer look below.
Law enforcement
Law enforcement authorities can help make cities and streets safer with ALPR, which can identify blacklisted, stolen or suspicious vehicles. “The police in many countries use vehicle surveillance ALPR cameras mounted on top of or inside police cars for crime prevention purposes or investigative activities. After all, in contrast to the camera systems installed at fixed points that are recognizable to all citizens over time, constantly moving mobile cameras can capture violations unexpectedly, incentivizing drivers to act as if they were under constant surveillance. As a result, there has been a significant decline in crime rates in cities where such technology has been introduced,” said Csaba Nagy-Amigo, Director at Adaptive Recognition.
Incentivization
According to Nagy-Amigo, usually traffic violators have to face penalties and fines, but there are a few initiatives that motivate drivers with rewards. “We also came across a project where the vehicle's owner was rewarded with a tax refund if they avoided certain city districts, choosing suitable alternative routes during specific periods. In these cases, too, the municipalities solved the problem with automatic number plate reading technology,” he said.
The environment
Pollution is a tough issue faced in every metropolis, and ALPR can also play a role in this regard. In particular, now there are so-called low emission zones spread in cities around the world, and ALPR can serve as an ideal entry/exit solution. “Cities create entry and exit points at the borders of these zones. Access is either limited to license plate number and type of license plate (for example only purely electric cars can drive in), or it can be used with a time limit (for example you have to leave two hours after crossing the checkpoint),” Nagy-Amigo said.
Parking
Finally, ALPR makes parking operations and enforcement much easier for city operators and drivers. “Automatic number plate recognition technology allows the charging of drivers automatically for the actual parking time at a parking zone,” Nagy-Amigo said. “Suppose the municipality knows that there are 350 parking spaces available in zone A and 600 in zone B. In that case, it can use ALPR technology to see the number of cars parking in each zone and inform drivers about the number of parking places still available with the help of a mobile application. Thanks to the constantly updated information systems, everyone can find a parking space in much less time, and the city administration can save the citizens millions of hours every day.”
ALPR cameras vs. traditional IP cameras
Increasingly, there are dedicated ALPR cameras with ALPR algorithms built in. It’s important to note that in a smart city deployment, ALPR cameras and traditional IP cameras serve different purposes.
“Our ALPR camera is developed specifically to take photos of passing vehicles, recognize the vehicles' unique ID, and take pictures that can be stored as still images. In the case of IP cameras, it is much more important to see an area as large as possible at one time and to keep zones under surveillance. The camera then records the events that took place, which can be stored for a certain period of time,” Nagy-Amigo said.
He added: “Technically, the two goals can be achieved in two different ways. One usually captures and stores an image, the other a video recording. In the case of ALPR, it is sufficient if the vehicle and its close environment are visible on the image, while in the case of the IP camera, the main objective is to see an area as large as possible.”
Privacy protection imperative
It is imperative, however, to make sure ALPR systems do not infringe on user privacy. ALPR cameras transmit live images of vehicles and their data. This data is supposed to be used by police and transportation authorities for law enforcement purposes and should be kept on their private networks. Exposing them on the open Internet would lead to serious privacy concerns.
That’s exactly what happened when some Motorola Solutions ALPR cameras were found to be live-streaming vehicles passing by to the open Internet, according to a
report by 404 Media. The report cited Matt Brown of Brown Fine Security as suggesting the cameras were misconfigured, resulting in them transmitting live images of vehicles and associated data to the Internet instead of the user's own private network. The streams can be watched without any sort of login, the report said
This not only creates privacy concerns but also personal safety concerns. Imagine being able to see on the Internet the image of a black Toyota Camry with the license plate number 1234567 passing a certain point in the city at 4 p.m. The data can be exploited by stalkers, criminals or people with ill intentions.
An
article on the same topic by WIRED, meanwhile, cited Jehan Wickramasuriya, corporate VP overseeing LPR products at Motorola Solutions, as confirming that some devices were exposed, but saying had the customers used the “recommended configurations,” there would not be the risk of cameras being exposed.
“We are working directly with these customers to restore their system configurations consistent with our recommendations and industry best practices,” Wickramasuriya says. “Our next firmware update will introduce additional security hardening,” Wickramasuriya was quoted as saying.
The WIRED article also cited Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as saying: “Police shouldn't be collecting this data at all unless there is an active investigation, and even then, the devices must be strictly scrutinized for security and public safety.” In the end, in ALPR, striking a proper balance between public safety and privacy protection is important and much needed.