The camera mounted on the streetlight has done one job for years: photograph your license plate. That could soon change. A new sensor upgrade is reportedly underway to detect Bluetooth signals coming from your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods — turning routine plate scans into a record of which devices, and which person, just drove by.
If you’ve always treated your iPhone’s Bluetooth signal as harmless background noise, it’s time to rethink that. Every time you pass these cameras, they could pull a wireless fingerprint of your devices and link it to your license plate. This builds a trail far richer than a single photo ever could. It also stitches your phone into a database that has nothing to do with Apple.
Meet SignalTrace, the iPhone license plate camera system
If the proposed sensor upgrades are adopted by law enforcement, border security or other government agencies, it would give privacy advocates the heebie-jeebies. The data would likely be collected with judicial oversight, and could paint a very detailed picture of the movements of large sections of the population. It’s in stark contrast to the kind of privacy protections used with Apple AirTags, for example, which are carefully designed so that no one, not even Apple, knows their whereabouts except the original owner.
The proposed sensor upgrades are currently being marketed by Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, a long-time defense contractor.
First reported by 404 Media, the system is called SignalTrace. The company markets it as a way to identify people using signals their gadgets emit — smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and RFID tags.
The hardware reads these signals, sorts them by device type, and combines them with the license plate camera’s data. Spot the same phone signal near the same plate enough times, and the system flags a travel pattern. This means SignalTrace would theoretically be able to determine who’s riding with whom.
No warrant, no opt-out
Leonardo does say that SignalTrace does not decrypt or read the actual contents of your phone, but rather uses the identifiers it broadcasts. Also, the data is handed over to law enforcement if they ask for it.
But what it doesn’t mention is the need for a warrant, meaning the legal guardrail is whatever your local police department decides it should be.
The company is using the same logic that applies to license plate cameras. If you are in a public space, don’t expect privacy. Still, the argument gets shakier because it’s not just your car being logged; it’s the iPhone in your pocket.
No agency has confirmed buying SignalTrace yet, but Leonardo’s license plate cameras already operate in over 25 countries. This means the infrastructure to make this work is already there.
Why SignalTrace should bug iPhone users
An iPhone license plate camera system like this is exactly what Apple has spent years trying to defend against — changing Bluetooth identifiers and flagging unknown AirTags nearby.
SignalTrace is a stark reminder that these systems were designed with trackers like AirTag, not government sensor networks bolted onto traffic cameras. Apple won’t likely be able to patch its way out of a camera on a streetlight.
Civil liberties groups are yet to call out SignalTrace, but they don’t need to. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the same license plate network the system plugs into has already been used to track protest activity. If your iPhone has ever felt like it was just yours, this is the system that says otherwise.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
