4 Truths About License Plate Recognition
The Facts Don’t Lie
Like most B2B businesses, DRN solves problems for our customers. And by solving these problems, we do more than just drive revenue and results, we create a bigger impact. That impact touches anyone that drives a car and has an insurance policy. Our data and analytics mitigate risk for auto lenders, enabling them to extend more loans at better rates.
Insurance companies use our data and analytics to identify fraud and rate evasion on commercial and personal lines, which in turn means better rates on policies for consumers.
DRN’s solutions are fueled by vehicle location data and analytics. That vehicle location data comes from License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology. LPR is a powerful technology that supports a range of commercial applications, yet misconceptions about how it works and how LPR data is used can create confusion.
Four License Plate Recognition Truths
1. LPR Automates a Manual Task
Vehicles travel on public roads and thoroughfares every day. Every car has a license plate, and DRN’s cameras capture images of license plates that pass within the field of view of the camera. These cameras simply automate a process that has been done manually for years, capturing publicly visible and publicly available information.
We generate this LPR data from repossession agents looking for assignments provided to them by lenders. LPR records are securely managed and accessible only by authorized personnel. We combine our LPR data with analytics to power solutions for the auto recovery, auto finance, and insurance industries, helping them locate their assets and connect with their customers.
2. LPR Does Not Capture Personally Identifiable Information
Even as LPR data offers valuable insights for locating assets and connecting with customers, these LPR cameras simply take photographs of license plates and stamp the pictures with the date, time, and location coordinates of where they were taken, just like a modern smartphone camera. LPR data contains no personally identifiable information, only a photo of an anonymous rectangle with alphanumeric characters on it, a license plate.
Every state mandates by law that license plates be mounted on vehicles and visible for identification purposes.
3. LPR Data is Secure
The only way to link personally identifiable information (PII) about a person, including the name, address, or face, to an anonymous LPR data record is to obtain access to a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles database. That access is currently restricted by a strong federal law, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), which carries stiff fines and federal prison penalties for any violation.
Because of the DPPA, the connection of an LPR data record to personal data from DMV records for malicious or abusive reasons is strictly prohibited under existing law. Insurance carriers and lenders have use of this data under DPPA permissible use.
4. LPR is a Force for Good
DRN’s customers, including financial services and insurance companies, use LPR data to mitigate risk, recover assets, properly rate policies, fight auto theft and fraud, and connect with their customers. LPR can also support investigations and other public safety applications.
LPR serves as a valuable technology that helps organizations address real-world challenges while supporting better business and operational outcomes.
Privacy concerns often dominate debates about license plate recognition. For the industries that rely on LPR, the technology provides valuable insights that help mitigate risk, recover assets, fight fraud, and improve business outcomes.
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