by Proliferation of Surveillance Systems
Automatic license plate readers, known as ALPRs, are now virtually everywhere. They are installed on police cars, placed at intersections, and integrated into streetlights across the country. Florida, in response to the growing prevalence of this technology, recently passed updated legislation targeting those who obscure license plates or hinder their visibility.
The law includes wording regarding devices that prevent recording systems from capturing the plate. In other words, a very clever anti-ALPR tool could now land Florida drivers in jail… and most people probably wouldn’t be able to spot it without help.
Technology That Tricks AI
This refers to technology by musician and engineer Benn Jordan, who recently demonstrated a minimalist sticker with small dots designed to confuse ALPR cameras without obscuring the plate in the traditional sense. To the human eye, the plate remains completely legible.
The numbers, letters, layout—everything appears normal. Even images from ALPR cameras show a fully legible license plate. But that’s not the point.
How the System Sees the Trick
What matters is how the AI sees it. The strategically placed dots exploit features of machine learning image classification. Instead of identifying the object as a license plate worth recording, the AI often classifies it as something else entirely and skips the recording altogether.
According to Florida’s new law, a license plate obscuring device is considered any manual, electronic, or mechanical device that interferes with the legibility, angular visibility, detection, or ability to record any feature of the license plate. Importantly, the statute is not limited to human readability. It explicitly includes interference with the operation of recording systems. This is where Jordan’s sticker becomes legally problematic.
Criticism of the Law’s Broad Wording
Critic and right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossmann immediately pointed out how broad and potentially dangerous this language is. Criticizing the law, Rossmann argued that Florida has effectively criminalized tools that challenge surveillance infrastructure, even when they don’t hinder a human from identifying the vehicle and are not used to commit a crime.
Nevertheless, anyone using a tool like the one Jordan created could end up in jail just as if they were breaking traffic rules while driving under the influence.
Priority on Protecting Systems, Not Intent
Jordan’s sticker does not flip license plates, hide digits, or apply reflective coatings. It does not change the color or layout of the plate. It simply shows that ALPR systems rely on fragile pattern recognition, and Florida’s law appears to prioritize protecting these systems over intent, harm, or human legibility.
It’s unclear whether Florida legislators intended to ban machine learning vulnerability tests. However, it is evident that the law’s language is broad enough to encompass them anyway… even if most people wouldn’t even notice anything on the license plate.
This situation points to a deeper trend where legislation attempts to keep pace with technological innovation, sometimes creating overly broad frameworks that can affect not only malicious actors but also those simply demonstrating system vulnerabilities. Banning tools that don’t hinder humans but affect algorithms raises the question of what should be the primary criterion for legality: a human’s ability to identify an object or a machine’s ability to scan it. Similar laws could have significant implications for security researchers who discover flaws in government-used surveillance systems.
