As viewers of the new film Spotlight will see play out on the big screen, in Eastern New England, if something isn’t covered in the Boston Globe or by the few other media elites in town, then it might as well not have happened at all.

One of the many reasons we started BINJ is to foster a network of independent outlets and media makers that can collaborate and push important stories into the greater narrative.

We’re building toward that, and are thankful for the many sites that have covered our efforts so far — from the BU Daily Free Press to Nieman Lab. Still, bigger local players have been reluctant to piggyback our scoops.

For one, it’s unfortunate that reporters barely cover topics like surveillance in Boston — where a lot of this tech comes from — but at least national voices like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are helping spread the word.

Thanks to the EFF for recognizing the work of Kenneth Lipp in exposing the Boston police for their use of plate readers (excerpt below, emphasis ours). We look forward to contributing further to this body of research …

Law enforcement agencies around the country have been all too eager to adopt mass surveillance technologies, but sometimes they have put little effort into ensuring the systems are secure and the sensitive data they collect on everyday people is protected.

Case in point: automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems.

Earlier this year, EFF learned that more than a hundred ALPR cameras were exposed online, often with totally open Web pages accessible by anyone with a browser. In five cases, we were able to track the cameras to their sources: St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the Kenner Police in Louisiana; Hialeah Police Department in Florida; and the University of Southern California’s public safety department. These cases are very similar, but unrelated to, major vulnerabilities in Boston’s ALPR network uncovered in September by DigBoston and the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.

READ THE WHOLE EFF PIECE HERE:

READ KENNETH’S ORIGINAL PIECE HERE:

HELP US DO MORE OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK HERE: