A new article in Businessweek highlights the story of Digital Recognition Network Inc, a company which makes license-plate readers that rapidly scan the tags of passing vehicles, and their new lawsuit against the government in Utah. The company is suing because they argue that that a new state ban on license-plate scanning by private companies infringes on its free-speech rights, partly gained from the 2010 Citizens United decision, to collect and disseminate the information it captures.

The full article can be read here.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The surveillance industry is fighting back. A company that makes automated license plate readers sued Utah’s government Thursday over a new law there intended to protect drivers’ privacy. Digital Recognition Network Inc. of Fort Worth, which makes license-plate readers that rapidly scan the tags of passing vehicles, argues that a new state ban on license-plate scanning by private companies infringes on its free-speech rights to collect and disseminate the information it captures, and has effectively put it out of business there. The case is an early example of pushback as Congress and state legislatures consider proposals to rein in phone-records collection, drones and license-plate readers.

At least 14 states are considering measures that would curb such collections. Video: Beijing to Limit New Auto License Plates Republican state Sen. Todd Weiler, who sponsored the new law, said his proposal gained momentum after legislators discovered police were gathering widespread data from mobile license-plate readers. He said those cameras can be useful, such as recovering stolen cars, but he worried about the privacy implications when organizations store that data indefinitely. “It’s one thing to take a photo,” he said. “It’s another to take photos every 80th of a millisecond, and then store that data you can later be identified by.”

The Texas company says it’s not a police agency — law enforcement already is exempt from the ban under Utah’s new law — nor can it access in bulk federally protected driver data that personally identifies the letters and numbers it collects from license plates in public. The company said it only wants to find cars that have been stolen or repossessed, not to cull large swaths of data and incriminate people from their travel habits.