Walmart customers may be getting more than a security-camera view of their vehicle. The retailer acknowledges using automated license plate readers to record and retain information about vehicles entering its properties.
By Sciotopost Staff
If you’ve driven through a Walmart parking lot recently, you may have noticed cameras positioned near entrances and exits. Some are ordinary security cameras. Others may be automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, capable of turning a vehicle’s license plate and other identifying characteristics into searchable data.
Walmart acknowledges that it uses ALPR technology on its properties.
According to Walmart’s current ALPR privacy notice, the retailer uses automated license plate readers to help with security, theft and fraud prevention, parking enforcement and the safety of people and property. Walmart says its ALPR systems are accessible only to authorized employees, including members of its asset-protection and product-management teams and employees who manage its facilities.
But Walmart’s system raises a question that is increasingly becoming relevant as communities debate the use of Flock Safety cameras:
What is the difference between a retailer’s ALPR system and the Flock network increasingly used by law enforcement?
Both systems can identify vehicles
At their most basic level, Walmart’s ALPR cameras and Flock cameras perform a similar function.
An ALPR camera photographs a vehicle and uses software to convert information from the image into searchable data. Flock says its technology can identify a license plate as well as vehicle characteristics such as make, model and color, along with the time and location of the observation.
Walmart’s privacy policy does not publicly provide the same level of technical detail about the specific hardware and software used at every Walmart location.
That means seeing an ALPR camera at a Walmart does not automatically mean it is a Flock camera.
In some communities, however, Flock cameras have been installed on or near Walmart property.
For example, Naperville, Illinois, installed a Flock camera on Walmart property as part of the city’s police ALPR system. In that case, the camera was part of the police department’s Flock network rather than simply Walmart’s private ALPR system.
A Virginia police department has similarly noted that private businesses, including Walmart, can purchase Flock cameras independently and that privately owned Flock cameras may operate separately from a police department’s system.
The biggest difference: who controls the system
This is where the two systems can become substantially different.
Walmart says its ALPR system is controlled by the company and access is restricted to authorized Walmart personnel. The retailer says the information can be disclosed when Walmart believes doing so will help protect the safety, property or rights of individuals or Walmart.
Flock, meanwhile, sells ALPR technology to law enforcement agencies, businesses, communities and other organizations.
Flock’s system is specifically designed to make vehicle information searchable and can generate alerts when a vehicle matching a law-enforcement hotlist is detected.
That distinction matters.
A Walmart-operated ALPR system is primarily a private corporate security system.
A Flock camera operated by a police department can become part of a law-enforcement investigative network.
Walmart says it keeps ALPR data for 60 days
One of the more significant differences is data retention.
Walmart’s current ALPR privacy notice states that information collected through its ALPR systems is retained for 60 days. The company says information can be kept longer when necessary for legal proceedings or other lawful purposes.
That is currently longer than Flock’s newly announced recommended retention period.
Flock announced Aug. 13 that it is changing its recommended default ALPR retention period from 30 days to seven days. The company also plans to introduce an “Evidence Mode” that allows investigators to preserve specific ALPR information connected to an active investigation.
However, Flock’s seven-day recommendation does not mean every Flock camera will automatically delete information after seven days. Existing customers can retain their locally approved retention policies.
That makes Walmart’s publicly stated 60-day retention period notable when compared with Flock’s new seven-day recommendation.
Does Walmart’s system track you around town?
This is where terminology can become misleading.
An ALPR camera can record that a particular vehicle was observed at a particular location and time.
But a single Walmart camera cannot know where that vehicle went after leaving the parking lot.
To build a broader picture of a vehicle’s movements, information from multiple cameras and locations would have to be available to the system conducting the search.
Flock’s technology is designed around networks of cameras operated by different agencies and organizations. Flock says its cameras capture point-in-time observations rather than continuously following a vehicle. The company disputes the characterization of its system as a vehicle-tracking system.
Nevertheless, when numerous ALPR cameras are deployed across different roads, neighborhoods, businesses and communities, investigators can search the resulting observations to identify where a vehicle was previously observed.
That is one reason ALPR technology has become the subject of a national debate over privacy.
A Walmart camera and a Flock camera could both be watching the same parking lot
The distinction becomes even more important at locations where Walmart has its own ALPR equipment while a police department also has Flock equipment nearby.
In that situation, there could be multiple surveillance systems operating in the same parking lot.
One could be controlled by Walmart for corporate security.
Another could be controlled by a police department as part of its Flock network.
The fact that both systems photograph license plates does not mean they are automatically connected.
A local police department’s Flock system also does not necessarily have automatic access to Walmart’s privately owned ALPR system.
That access depends on the ownership, contracts, technical configuration and policies governing the particular cameras.
Walmart says its system is not just about catching shoplifters
Walmart’s published policy says its ALPR technology is used for several purposes, including security, theft and fraud prevention, parking enforcement and maintaining the safety of individuals and property.
The company says authorized employees receive training regarding responsible and ethical use of personal information and that Walmart uses physical, administrative and technical safeguards to protect ALPR information.
The retailer also says it routinely monitors its ALPR system for accuracy.
The technology therefore goes beyond simply recording video of a parking lot.
The cameras create data that can be searched and associated with a particular vehicle observation.
Why the distinction matters to customers
For the average Walmart shopper, the practical question isn’t simply whether a camera can read a license plate.
It is who has the information, how long it is retained, who can search it and under what circumstances it can be disclosed.
With Walmart’s system, the company says the information is retained for 60 days and controlled by authorized Walmart personnel.
With a police-operated Flock system, the data can become part of a law-enforcement investigative system capable of searching vehicle observations and generating alerts.
Flock has faced increasing scrutiny over how its technology is used. In response, the company recently announced mandatory misuse-detection tools, required case codes for law-enforcement searches and other restrictions.
The bigger issue: ALPRs are becoming commonplace
The debate surrounding Flock has helped bring attention to a technology that is no longer limited to police departments.
Retailers, homeowners associations, schools, businesses and local governments increasingly use ALPRs.
Flock itself says its cameras are used by businesses as well as law enforcement.
Walmart’s own privacy policy confirms that the retailer is among the major companies using ALPR technology.
The result is an expanding network of cameras capable of recording when and where vehicles appear.
For consumers, that means the question is no longer simply whether a parking lot has security cameras.
Increasingly, the question is:
Who is collecting the license plate data, what information is being created from it, how long is it kept and who can ultimately access it?
Those answers can be very different depending on whether the camera belongs to Walmart, a police department, Flock Safety or another ALPR provider.
