It is about to take on a whole new meaning. Instead of you pairing your phone with your car, so as to be able to listen to music on your playlist or make a phone call hands-free, your phone will pair you with your car. They will work together to transmit data about where you're driving, when and how (as in how fast, for instance) to Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), which will then transmit all that data to our friends in government – who will use it to keep us safe, of course.

It turns out the "pairing" technology that will be used – is being used – to transmit information about you to the ALPRs via your phone and from there to the cops, the insurance mafia and other interested parties is the product of the same company .

Leonardo is the company.

And it's not just your phone, either, that will be paired with the ALPRs. Anything that emits data. That means anything that has Bluetooth wireless capability and that means things like smartwatches, ear buds and other so-called "wearable," too. Also infotainment systems and laptops, etc. Here's a fun video from Leonardo that tells you all about, to an upbeat techno-pop soundtrack. Snap your fingers to the beat, man.

"What if law enforcement could identify suspects by electronic devices they use"?

What if everyone is now implicitly a "suspect"?

"SignalTrace captures the unique signals emitted from each device and created a digital fingerprint for devices that routinely travel together."

Italics added.

Remember when you had to first get arrested and charged with a serious crime before they fingerprinted you? Now it's all done digitally – and automatically – with technology." That latter word has become a kind of cuss word, hasn't it? Like "safety" and "health". When you hear it, you brace. You know something bad is coming.

This latest "technology" enables the ALPRs to "sweep up unique identifiers of mobile phones, wearables, and other Bluetooth-enabled devices in those cars, potentially letting law enforcement identify specific drivers or passengers, according to a news piece about this. "The technology," the piece continues, "would turn ALPR cameras from devices focused on tracking cars to ones that can more readily track the location of particular people."