Protecting everyday travel, your likeness, and your data if I am elected

September 25, 2026

In my Guiding Principles I said I would oppose mass tracking tools like Flock systems and government data collection without warrants. This is that plan in plain language.

I am not trying to take a useful tool away from a cop looking for a stolen truck or a missing persons. I am trying to stop the government, and private companies working with the government, from keeping a record of lawful people driving to work, school, church, and the store. Americans have a constitutional right to travel freely throughout the United States. I will not treat that right as optional. If every is being logged, stored, and searched without a warrant we do not have free movement. We have temporary permission.

The rule I will fight for

A cop may check a plate against stolen, wanted, and missing-person lists in the moment. The state may not keep a diary of every lawful trip and search it later without a warrant. No third party may collect or store that data.

What officers could still do

Police and city vehicles could use a plate reader the old way:

• The device belongs to the agency, not a vendor network
• An on-duty officer is using it
• It checks a plate right then against stolen cars, wanted people, missing people, or an active warrant
• If it is not a hit, the read is thrown away

That is a tool. It is not a catalog of an entire population.

What will be stopped

• Saving a searchable history of everyday driving
• Private companies collecting or storing those plate reads, locations, or images
• Government paying a vendor for a map of where people have been
• Buying that same information from a data broker instead of getting a warrant
• Using your face, walk, or voice to track the public without a judge

A company can sell a camera or fix a camera. It should not own a file of who drove down the road.

What I would offer in Columbus

If elected, I will work to advance a package I am calling the Ohio Digital Warrant Acts. It is one idea in a few parts:

• Ask a judge first. Historical location records, face searches, and bought data should need a warrant.
• Plate readers the old way. On the cop car. Live hot list only. No vendor travel diary.
• Your body is not a barcode. No warrantless public tracking by face, gait, voice, or likeness.
• No middleman database. If police cannot collect it themselves without a warrant, they cannot pay a company to collect or keep it for them.
• No catalog of innocent people. Do not build permanent files on people who did nothing wrong “just in case.”
• Don’t ship Ohio’s data everywhere. A confirmed hit on a stolen car can be shared for that case. A dump of everybody’s driving history cannot.
• Real consequences. If someone builds the diary anyway, that data should be deleted, kept out of court, and the people who did it should be accountable.

This is a working proposal, like my property-tax and data-center posts. If a piece of it can be clearer or more practical, I want to hear it.

Jason Purviance

Libertarian for Ohio House District 47

Email: [email protected]