Posts Tagged ‘data privacy’
Illinois license plate cameras used illegally by out-of-state police, Giannoulias says
Capitol News Illinois
CHICAGO — The state of Illinois is investigating an automatic license plate reader system used in a northwest suburb after a Texas sheriff accessed the system to look for a woman who recently had an abortion.
This and hundreds of other searches, according to Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, violated Illinois law.
Law enforcement agencies seeking to access license plate reader data collected in Illinois would first have to attest in writing that they wouldn’t use it to enforce other state’s laws relating to abortion or immigration.
“There is concern that other law enforcement agencies are breaking the law, whether they’re doing it maliciously or unintentionally — that’s almost irrelevant,” Giannoulias said at a Thursday news conference.
Police in Mount Prospect, a village in suburban Cook County, set up a license plate reader system in such a way that allowed other law enforcement agencies to access data without providing written attestations. In addition to the Texas case, Giannoulias’ office said Mount Prospect’s system had been searched 262 times for immigration-related reasons between mid-January and the end of April.
The Texas case came to light after a report from the tech outlet 404 Media found the search impacted more than 83,000 license plate reader cameras in multiple states.
Giannoulias also noted that 46 out-of-state law enforcement agencies conducted searches of Illinois records that violated state law.
In response, Giannoulias’ office — which generally handles policy surrounding license plate readers and data sharing — announced it had instructed Flock Safety, a company that operates license plate readers in Mount Prospect, to shut off access to the system to out-of-state agencies. Giannoulias said he is also working with the Illinois attorney general to investigate further.
The secretary of state’s office said it will also establish an auditing system and additional safeguards.
“Automatic license plate readers are there to prevent violent crime, to prevent carjacking, to find stolen vehicles and to help when there’s a kidnapping, right?” Giannoulias said. “That’s what they are used for. When this data is being used to track people getting abortions or for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to use to track down individuals based on immigration policy. That is a very slippery slope.”
Advocates for immigration rights and reproductive rights applauded the state’s move.
“Our statewide policies are only as strong as the counties, cities and municipalities that implement these policies across Illinois,” Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Executive Director Lawrence Benito said Thursday. “When we are not on the same page, the misalignment can harm those in Illinois who are merely seeking the dignity and respect not afforded to them elsewhere.”
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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Pritzker signs order to protect personal autism data in response to federal action
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker issued an executive order Wednesday that bars state agencies from collecting and disclosing data about autism to the federal government unless it’s medically or legally necessary.
The order was in response to a move by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services earlier Wednesday to research and create a national autism database.
In a statement, Pritzker called the project a “threat” to the rights of disabled individuals. The order stated that the project raises privacy concerns about the collection and use of data, as well as potential “discriminatory profiling or surveillance of individuals with disabilities.”
“Every Illinoisan deserves dignity, privacy, and the freedom to live without fear of surveillance or discrimination,” Pritzker said. “As Donald Trump and DOGE threaten these freedoms, we are taking steps to ensure that our state remains a leader in protecting the rights of individuals with autism and all people with disabilities.”
Executive Order 2025-02 also requires state agencies to follow strict privacy and data protection requirements when they do disclose such data, including making personal information anonymous where it’s practicable and only disclosing the minimum amount of personal information that’s legally necessary.
The move was prompted by an HHS announcement of a research project on Wednesday. The project will allow the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to have access to data and medical records of Medicare and Medicaid enrollees diagnosed with autism in an effort to research autism, Newsweek reported.
It also directly responded to remarks made last month by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called autism an “epidemic” and said that President Trump has tasked him with finding a cause for the “epidemic.”
“Autism is a neurological difference—not a disease or an epidemic,” Pritzker’s order read. “People with disabilities, including individuals with autism, are too often stigmatized and underestimated, and public policy should never diminish the diverse strengths and potential of this community.”
This is not the first time Kennedy has touched on his beliefs about autism. During an interview in 2023, he confirmed that he believes that vaccines cause autism, a theory the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a wide body of research have long since debunked.
Read more: How RFK Jr.’s health proposals could affect Illinois
Executive orders aren’t often enacted by the Illinois governor, as last year he only signed three. This is the second order he has signed this year and is his latest action against the Trump Administration since his trade mission to Mexico this spring.
Read more: Pritzker hopes trade mission to Mexico sparks new investment despite tariffs
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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