The FBI is planning to purchase nationwide access to automated license plate reader (ALPR) data, with procurement records showing the agency intends to pay millions for near real-time access to vehicle movement data captured by roadside cameras across the United States. The plans were first reported by 404 Media in 2026, based on published procurement documents from the FBI Directorate of Intelligence.
ALPR cameras photograph every passing vehicle, logging license plates, locations, and timestamps into searchable databases already used by local law enforcement and some federal agencies. According to a statement of work in the procurement records, “The FBI has a crucial need for accessible LPRs to provide a diverse and reliable range of collections across the United States,” adding that data should span “major highways and an array of locations for maximum usefulness to law enforcement.” The documents specify that data access must be provided in “near real time.”
The revelation comes as a bipartisan pair of US lawmakers separately proposed legislation that would effectively prohibit state and local governments from using ALPR technology for police tracking — placing the FBI’s plans in direct tension with the congressional push.
In a separate security development, Google accidentally published a working proof-of-concept exploit for an unpatched vulnerability in Chromium, the open-source codebase underlying Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Arc. The flaw was originally reported 42 months ago by independent researcher Lyra Rebane. Google removed the disclosure after the error was discovered, but the exploit code had already been mirrored on archival sites.
The bug exploits the Browser Fetch API to allow any visited website to install a persistent service worker on a user’s device. That connection can be used to monitor browsing activity, route traffic through the victim’s machine, or pull the device into a proxied DDoS network — and can survive browser restarts and, in some cases, full system reboots. No patch has shipped.
Source: WIRED