A multinational aerospace, defense, and security technology company has begun marketing an upgrade to its Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) system that records smart device identifiers — like those used by smartphones, earbuds, watches, tire pressure sensors, employee badges and pet microchips.
The upgrade, called SignalTrace, can be installed on the ALPR systems already deployed across the United States by Leonardo, an aerospace, defense, and security technology company headquartered in Rome.
SignalTrace expands traditional ALPR capabilities by detecting and correlating electronic devices near vehicles of interest, the company said in a statement.
By capturing publicly broadcast frequency activity from smartphones, Bluetooth wearables, car infotainment systems, and other devices, it continued, SignalTrace creates a unique "electronic fingerprint" that can be used for investigative purposes.
The system links multiple devices that consistently move with a vehicle, correlating them to the vehicle's license plate and time-stamped location data, it added. Even if a suspect changes or removes a license plate, SignalTrace's algorithms can still provide actionable intelligence by identifying the unique mix of devices they carry or use.
More context is usually better than less, provided it is collected and used appropriately, explained Chris Boehm, chief technology officer at Zero Networks , of Tel Aviv, Israel, a provider of automated microsegmentation, zero trust networking, identity-based access control, and secure remote access services.
"We build security tools that correlate multiple pieces of information because a single indicator rarely tells the whole story," he told TechNewsWorld. "I think the same principle applies here."
"A license plate identifies a vehicle," he continued. "A nearby device identifier can help investigators determine whether the same person or device is consistently associated with that vehicle. That can be incredibly valuable in investigations involving organized crime, human trafficking, serial burglaries, or stolen vehicles where suspects intentionally change cars or swap plates to avoid detection."
However, he cautioned that it is important to remember that this is an investigative lead, not evidence of guilt. "Good investigators should treat it as another data point that helps narrow the search rather than something that automatically identifies a suspect," he said.
SignalTrace is marketed as building a unique "electronic fingerprint" by correlating the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID signals that travel with a vehicle, added Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the security and surveillance project at the Center for Democracy & Technology , an online civil liberties and human rights advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.
"For investigators, that means another layer of identification when a plate goes missing and a way to link people, not just vehicles, to a time and place," he told TechNewsWorld.
"But the same feature that makes it useful for tracking a genuine suspect makes it equally capable of tracking everyone else on the road, none of whom consented to having their devices logged," he added.
Bowman noted that collecting device information raises serious privacy concerns. "Your devices are constantly chirping out unique identifiers you can't see and didn't ask to broadcast, and products like SignalTrace are built to scoop them up and tie them to a car and a location," he explained.
"Those identifi…