[1][3][4] Private industry collects this information for profit through, directly or indirectly, activities such as consumer profiling and repossession.
[1][4] Companies have collected over 1 billion scans of registration plates in the United States,[4] stored in multiple national databases.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) read from dedicated short-range communication transponders voluntarily obtained by citizens for electronic toll collection enable recording of time and location data at toll crossings.
[7] Scanning equipment has also been installed at additional, non-toll locations,[8][5] enabling further data collection.
[9] [10] The American Civil Liberties Union issued a report on license plate tracking, finding that the vast majority of scans collected are the vehicles of innocent persons.