[scottlamb]

> We had a discussion that it would be easy to determine who was passing by at what times due to these especially when you can "de-anonymize" the data for example link it to a numberplate.

You could also read the numberplate directly with OpenALPR. It can be finicky to set up a camera to do this reliably in all conditions (particularly at night and high speed) but once done you could detect any car passing, not just ones with wifi access points.

When the law requires us to have numberplates, I think this just has to be considered public information for anyone who is nearby or can leave a camera nearby. It's not ideal to leak it in additional forms that might be easier for people to grab (say, with an ESP32), but it's a matter of degree rather than of kind.

But yeah, I'm with you on some of these others, particularly the medical devices. That's not great.

[AlotOfReading]

There's a difference between public and Public. I go outside with my face visible and I don't mind if my neighbors see me. I do mind if my neighbors stand outside my door with a notepad sketching faces every time they see me or anyone else, especially if they're selling the data. Systematic tracking that isn't subject to the constraints of human memory and apathy fundamentally changes the equation.

[scottlamb]

> Systematic tracking that isn't subject to the constraints of human memory and apathy fundamentally changes the equation.

I definitely don't approve of mass collection across many cameras, accessible to who-knows-who with minimal if any privacy controls (Flock). But it wouldn't surprise or bother me if my next-door neighbor had ALPR enabled, as long as it's not part of that cloud. YMMV.

Full disclosure: I develop an open source home/hobbyist-oriented NVR, although it doesn't have an ALPR feature or any other analytics today.

[thedrexster]

> constraints of human memory and apathy

i like that a lot, brother, thank you!