Leonardo's SignalTrace links license plate readers to personal devices for tracking
Leonardo has developed SignalTrace, a system that extends automatic license plate readers to detect and correlate personal electronic devices—including smartphones, earbuds, fitness trackers, and pet microchips—with specific vehicles to create digital fingerprints of occupants. The technology stores historical correlation data for future law enforcement queries, enabling tracking of individuals even if vehicles change or remove license plates.
What happened
Leonardo has developed SignalTrace, a system that expands automatic license plate readers to collect signals from nearby electronic devices and associate them with specific vehicles over time.
The system can detect and correlate Bluetooth-enabled devices such as smartphones, wireless earbuds, fitness trackers, and smartwatches, as well as signals from vehicle systems, Wi-Fi devices, RFID tags, and pet microchips, creating what Leonardo calls an 'electronic fingerprint' tied to each vehicle.
According to product materials, SignalTrace stores correlation data for future searches and analysis, allowing investigators to build historical records connecting devices, locations, and vehicles, even if a vehicle changes or removes its license plate.
Reported impact
Privacy advocates view the technology as a major escalation in surveillance capability, as it converts license plate readers from vehicle-tracking systems into people-tracking devices by identifying occupants through their personal electronic devices.
The system collects data on every vehicle that passes, storing device and correlation data for future queries and analysis.
Index analysis
SignalTrace represents an expansion of traditional automatic license plate reader technology to track not just vehicles but the people associated with them through persistent digital signatures created from their personal devices.
By correlating multiple devices that travel together with a vehicle, the system can identify specific occupants even if vehicle identification is altered or obscured.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.