There's a difference between public and Public. I go outside with my face visible and I don't mind if my neighbors see me. I do mind if my neighbors stand outside my door with a notepad sketching faces every time they see me or anyone else, especially if they're selling the data. Systematic tracking that isn't subject to the constraints of human memory and apathy fundamentally changes the equation.

> Systematic tracking that isn't subject to the constraints of human memory and apathy fundamentally changes the equation.

I definitely don't approve of mass collection across many cameras, accessible to who-knows-who with minimal if any privacy controls (Flock). But it wouldn't surprise or bother me if my next-door neighbor had ALPR enabled, as long as it's not part of that cloud. YMMV.

Full disclosure: I develop an open source home/hobbyist-oriented NVR, although it doesn't have an ALPR feature or any other analytics today.

> constraints of human memory and apathy

i like that a lot, brother, thank you!