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  • Aug 8, 2026, 12:29 PM

    🔴 A defense contractor is now selling technology that scans every electronic device in your car as you drive past a camera. It ties everything to your license plate. You cannot opt out.

    It is called SignalTrace. Made by Leonardo, an Italian military contractor with existing U.S. Special Operations Command contracts. It sweeps your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, your dog's RFID chip, tire pressure sensors, your car's infotainment system. Anything that broadcasts.

    It bundles these into what Leonardo calls your "electronic fingerprint," timestamped and geotagged. Stored in an "Enterprise Operations Center for future queries and analysis."

    Those are their words. Not mine.

    You did not consent. You cannot opt out. Your devices broadcast by existing. In most places, this is perfectly legal.

    If this sounds like something that will be abused: it already has been. Police have used existing license plate reader networks to stalk partners, verify school residency, run background checks, and monitor protests. At least 22 officers charged or resigned for ALPR stalking.

    SignalTrace does not read your messages. It does not need to. It knows who you travel with, where you go, and when.

    Sources: techdirt.com/2026/06/24/survei and leonardocompany-us.com/lpr/els

    #surveillance #privacy #ALPR

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  • Aug 8, 2026, 2:02 PM

    @jcrabapple This reminds me another real story from the early 90s, when massive power CB transceivers were still in use on cars. A couple of guys passing with their car in front of a police road control and their sensitive RF speed sensors. After a few passes with 1 kW of brutal transmission the officers had to pack their melted instrumentation and leave.
    These controls are never targeting any real criminal: they're too dangerous.

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  • Aug 9, 2026, 5:50 PM

    @jcrabapple This makes me think of an old radio audience measurement tool that would eavesdrop on the leaky receivers of car radios as they passed to see what station they were tuned to. "All receivers are also transmitters" was how I learned it.

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  • Aug 9, 2026, 5:50 PM

    @jcrabapple I can understand how automobiles, and their contents and passengers, can be electronically fingerprinted (just as web browsers can be fingerprinted.)

    So perhaps we jeed a "feed the beast" device that will turn every car into a seeming clown car filled with hundreds of phones, people, and other identifiers (including fake tire pressure sensors or tire RFID.)

    I bet it could be built on a small, inexpensive ($2) device like an ESP32 and powered by USB.

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