If you’ve driven in a California city like Sacramento, Modesto, Merced, Livermore, or Pleasanton,then your vehicle, location, and movement data may have been tracked by Motorola’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) systems and illegally shared with out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies. Advocates from organizations like the EFF and ACLU have been raising the alarm on privacy concerns with automatic license plate readers for years, and it’s time to take action.
What is Motorola and Where are its License Plate Reader (ALPR) Cameras?
Motorola develops surveillance technologies used by law enforcement, government entities, educational institutions, and private organizations.
Motorola’s license plate recognition systems, which capture images and track vehicles, are deployed in California and nationwide, and may be installed in or around:
High-speed and high-volume roadways
University campuses and educational facilities
Parking lots
Business and retail areas
Motorola also operates a platform known as Vigilant VehicleManager which is designed to aggregate and analyze license plate reader data. Vigilant serves as a centralized database where data collected from cameras is stored and made available to law enforcement customers.
What Motorola is Doing with Your Data:
Motorola’s ALPR cameras allegedly enable comprehensive tracking of individuals’ daily movements. Rather than focusing on specific suspects, these systems are designed to capture images of, and surveil, every passing vehicle.
According to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (ACRIC), ALPR systems could be used toinfer more information than just license plate numbers. Allegedly, these systems could also draw conclusions about an individual’s:
Personal relationships,
Marital fidelity,
Religious observance,
and political activities
and share it with law enforcement and corporations.
Lawsuits Against Motorola for Data Privacy Practices
Motorola has been hit with other lawsuits related to how it collects and stores data; for example, the company was sued in 2024 for allegedly violating Illinois law by collecting, storing, and disclosing individuals’ biometric data to law enforcement agencies via facial recognition technology known as “FaceSearch.” The lawsuit settled in 2025 and Motorola had to pay money to a class of Illinois residents who may have been impacted.
Our Privacy Lawyers’ Experience with Taking on Companies like Motorola
Gibbs Mura has prosecuted some of the largest and most influential privacy and data breach cases in the country. In 2025, Gibbs Mura secured a $27.5 million settlement against Thomson Reuters alleging its CLEAR platform violated millions of Californians’ privacy. Gibbs Mura also helped achieve the largest data breach settlement in history in the Equifax Data Breach Lawsuit, securing $1.5 billion from Equifax after its 2017 data breach exposed the data of over 145 million Americans.
Automatic License Plate Readers & CA Data Privacy Protections: Know Your Rights
California has some of the nation’s strongest privacy protections—laws specifically designed to prevent the kind of mass surveillance, location tracking, and large-scale data sharing that Motorola cameras enable. These include:
No Out-of-State Data Sharing:
Public agencies “shall not sell, share, or transfer ALPR information, except to another public agency” (§ 1798.90.55(b)). California law defines “public agency” as California state and local entities only—not federal agencies or out-of-state police.
Required Security Safeguards:
ALPR operators must “maintain reasonable security procedures and practices, including operational, administrative, technical, and physical safeguards, to protect ALPR information from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure” (§ 1798.90.51(a)).
Mandatory Privacy Policies:
Operators must implement usage and privacy policies ensuring data collection and sharing “is consistent with respect for individuals’ privacy and civil liberties,” and require that data “only be used for the authorized purposes” (§§ 1798.90.51(b), 1798.90.52(b)).
Based on the alleged sharing of California residents’ license plate data with out-of-state and federal agencies in direct violation of state privacy protections, affected individuals may have legal claims enabling them to recover damages. Speak with our legal team today.
Our License Plate Reader Data Privacy Lawsuit Team
