Where's Your Car? East Bay Tracking Firm Knows

Dude, where's your car? An East Bay firm knows: Vigilant Video, headquarted in Livermore, has been tracking your ride with GPS.

The firm uses hundreds of millions of points of data to inform police exactly when and where various cars' license plates have been spotted, according to California Watch.

The information is collected via high-tech scanners on cops' patrol cars as well as at intersections, toll booths, and elsewhere. The information is sent to the firm, and then alerts for offenders' cars is sent back to police units, perhaps hundreds of miles away, seeking those vehicles.

Data on normal citizens as well as wanted criminals is recorded and stored -- and that's the issue for civil liberties watchers, the newspaper reported.

Though police as well as the company's sales managers say that the tracking data is nothing more intrusive than a public photograph. And what's wrong with giving police tools to do their jobs?