The California Supreme Court has largely upheld, but remanded the American Civil Liberties Union’s license plate reader data request case.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU) v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County involves police investigations and an individual’s privacy rights.

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Albert Gidari, director of the Privacy Center for Internet & Society at Stanford Law School, told the Northern California Record the court made the right call, but noted, “Yes, the California Supreme Court balanced the public’s right to disclosure with privacy concerns. But it is ironic in another sense. If the license plate data is so sensitive, why does the government get to collect it in the first place and view it any time without legal process?”

Gidari said California leads the nation in ALPR privacy because the state requires cities to publish a privacy policy regarding ALPR data. However, Gidari said, “These policies are opaque when it comes to what the government can do with the data. The case describes investigative uses, but we ought to know which other agencies have accessed the data, if any, and for what purposes.”

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“The reason the ACLU didn’t challenge the lawfulness of the collection in the first place, no doubt, is because the license plate is visible to all in the public space,” Gidari said. “Any driver assumes the risk that their license plate will be seen and therefore collected when they drive or park in a public place. You can’t invade privacy in public so to speak. But with the advent of smart cities and sensors everywhere, it is reasonable to ask whether there ought to be a tort of public disclosure of public facts instead of private facts.