Kaiser Permanente has been conducting mass surveillance of its members for years and is sharing that information with law enforcement.
Public records requests and publicly-available information have revealed that numerous Kaiser Permanente facilities in California have installed surveillance cameras that capture information about every vehicle that enters a facility. The cameras function as automated license plate readers (ALPRs) but also capture an image of anything that triggers a motion sensor.
KPIX-TV Coverage – https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/kaiser-permanente-license-plate-readers-privacy-advocates-allege-not-following-sb34/
Kaiser Permanente’s San Leandro Medical Center has 11 of these cameras and shares information gathered by the cameras with police in San Leandro. At its Vallejo Medical Center, Kaiser has at least five cameras installed and shares the collected data with the Vallejo Police, Burlingame Police, and San Leandro Police. Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center has at least four cameras and shares the collected data with San Leandro Police. Other Kaiser facilities with similar cameras include Point West Medical Center in Sacramento, Union City Medical Offices in Union City (six cameras), Fresno Medical Center in Fresno, and Baldwin Park Medical Center (at least three cameras) in Baldwin Park.
In addition to the questionable practice of healthcare facilities sharing surveillance data with law enforcement prior to the start of any investigation, Kaiser Permanente appears to be violating California’s SB- 34 on automated license plate recognition systems. That law, passed in 2015, requires an operator of a license plate reader system to implement a usage and privacy policy for the license plate readers that is “available to the public in writing, and, if the ALPR operator has an Internet Web site, the usage and privacy policy shall be posted conspicuously on that Internet Web site.” Kaiser has no such policy on its web site or available in writing to the public.
In 2014, a license plate reader was quietly installed by Alameda County at the entrance to the emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland. After Oakland Privacy alerted the press to its existence and reporters asked Highland Hospital about it, the license plate reader was removed in November 2017 by Highland Hospital, citing privacy and healthcare concerns.
If you know of or have photos of similar cameras at other Kaiser facilities, please let us know at contact@oaklandprivacy.org.
Source documents:
List of agencies sharing data with San Leandro Police Department via Flock, Sep. 20, 2023