EDITORIAL: OTHER VIEWS: Gann's 'cloud' conspiracy debunked

Apr. 4—Legislation passed in 2016 allowing license plate-scanning technology to be installed on Oklahoma roadways was an "unfortunate decision," according to Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola.

Gann apparently thinks scanning technology to identify lawbreakers is part of a greater Biden conspiracy to place all Americans under a federal police state. His concerns are misplaced.

Perhaps he forgot it was a Republican trifecta that passed the 2022 State Statute authorizing the installation of this scanning technology on roadways to identify uninsured motorists and prosecute them.

Gann thinks sharing license plate data with crimefighters such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, is equivalent to living in a pseudo police state.

In fact, it stands to reason in this age of technological advances that interagency cooperation should be seen as a good thing for law-abiding citizens.

A bigger concern should be the unregulated use of video imaging, data collection and information storage by private businesses. Businesses capture personal images, track spending habits and shopping trends every time we spend a dime at their checkout stands, whether online or down at the convenience store.

Gann outlines the license plate conspiracy theory as having a "real" purpose to create a database of vehicles' travels, complete with the vehicles' identifiers, including its bumper stickers. This information would then be store in the ominous "cloud," from which it would be shared with "many, many diverse government entities, including those that are not in Oklahoma."

Remember, these are primarily law enforcement agencies.

To Gann's credit, however, he does point out some state law enforcement agencies may have violated the current law and allowed for use of collected data outside the existing 2016 State Statute. In this, Gann is to be commended for bringing the limitations of the law to light. He rightfully warns public and city councils across the state that they do not have "statutory authorization for using these systems beyond insurance verification."

But when he states, "No Oklahoman should ever have to worry about their movements being shared with the Biden Administration's federal police state," he leaves reason and reality behind.

The reality is license plate scanners looking for criminal activity does not compare to mass human scanning and personal data collection employed daily by corporate and independent business operations. This is the place to start making legislative changes. We should protect law-abiding Americans from unregulated capitalism that compromises personal information and makes them vulnerable to financial and personal scams and crimes.

For the record, the so-called "Biden conspiracy" Gann references includes much-needed budget support for the COPS Hiring Program and $30 billion to fund a Safer America Plan. In February, Biden issued an executive order to further protect every American's sensitive personal data.