Your Fitness Tracker Might Be Watching You: What SignalTrace Means for Northern Wisconsin

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By Price County Fun | Updated June 2, 2026

The FBI wants nationwide access to license plate cameras. But a lesser-known technology from the same industry goes far beyond reading plates: it tracks the electronic devices you carry. Here’s what we know about whether it’s being used in Price County.

Two Different Technologies, One Surveillance Goal

You’ve probably heard about license plate readers, cameras mounted on police cars and poles that photograph every passing vehicle and log the plate number, time, and location. Companies like Flock Safety and ELSAG (owned by Italian defense contractor Leonardo S. For context on Price County’s surveillance camera installation, see our related investigation.p.A.) have made these systems common in American law enforcement.

But there’s a second, less discussed technology that goes much further. It doesn’t need your license plate at all.

What Is ELSAG SignalTrace?

ELSAG SignalTrace is what its manufacturer, Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, calls an “integrated signal intelligence system.” According to the company’s own product page at leonardocompany-us.com, SignalTrace is “designed to help law enforcement identify people of interest by the signals emitted from their electronic devices they travel with, such as fitness trackers, smartwatches, RFID tags, and local signals from their mobile phones.”

In plain English: it doesn’t just photograph your car. It detects the Bluetooth signal from your Apple Watch, the Wi-Fi ping from your phone, the RFID chip in your key fob, and the Bluetooth signal from your running shoes, then ties all of those together into a unique electronic fingerprint that identifies you, not just your vehicle.

The company’s CarSystem product sheet goes further, stating that “when integrated with ELSAG SignalTrace, the CarSystem gains another layer of intelligence” that “correlates nearby Bluetooth, smartphone, and other electronic device” signals with license plate reads.

Why It Matters More Than a License Plate Reader

License plate readers have legitimate controversy because they create detailed location histories of every car that passes. But they have a built-in limitation: they can only track vehicles on roads with cameras.

SignalTrace removes that limitation. Because it tracks device signals rather than plates, it can identify you:

  • On trails and waterways: anywhere you carry a phone or fitness tracker, not just where a road runs
  • In buildings: malls, gyms, public meetings, courtrooms
  • Without a car: walking, biking, skiing
  • Even if you switch vehicles, your devices follow you, and SignalTrace follows your devices

For a community like Price County, where people recreate on trails, lakes, and public lands, this is a fundamentally different privacy calculation than license plate cameras on Highway 13.

The FBI Wants Nationwide Access to This Data

On May 14, 2026, the FBI published a solicitation on SAM.gov seeking a contractor to provide “nationwide near-real-time access” to commercial automated license plate reader (ALPR) data. The Ars Technica report on the RFP details requirements including 75% US geographic coverage, vehicle search by plate/state/location/make/model, and heat mapping of camera coverage. The contract ceiling is $36 million over five years.

The primary bidders would be Flock Safety and Motorola Solutions (Vigilant Solutions), which together operate the largest commercial ALPR networks. But ELSAG/Leonardo is a significant player in the same market, and SignalTrace’s device-tracking capability could make their data especially useful to federal agencies.

Is Any of This in Price County?

Short answer: We found no public evidence that ELSAG SignalTrace is deployed anywhere in Wisconsin, including Price County.

However, the broader surveillance infrastructure is already here:

  • Flock Safety cameras are deployed in Wisconsin communities. The Village of Grafton (Ozaukee County) installed Flock cameras in 2021. Madison-area communities including Verona and Fitchburg had contracts, though both terminated them over privacy concerns in late 2025, with cameras remaining in place for months afterward, covered with plastic bags.
  • ELSAG license plate readers (the standard LPR product, not SignalTrace) are used by law enforcement agencies across the United States. We could not confirm specific Wisconsin deployments from public sources, but the product is widely available through federal procurement contracts and law enforcement grants.
  • Price County Sheriff’s Office has not publicly announced any LPR or surveillance camera purchase.

The absence of public evidence is not the same as absence. Surveillance technology purchases by law enforcement are typically not announced. Equipment can be acquired through federal grants, state procurement contracts, or shared regional task forces without any public disclosure.

Wisconsin Has No State Law Regulating This

This is the part that should concern anyone in Price County.

Wisconsin has no statewide law regulating license plate readers or signal intelligence systems. There are no requirements for:

  • Data retention limits (how long your location history is stored)
  • Access controls (who can query the database)
  • Sharing restrictions (whether local data can be shared with state or federal agencies)
  • Audit requirements (whether anyone checks for misuse)
  • Public disclosure (whether you can find out if your town has these systems)

Contrast this with California’s SB 34, which prohibits sharing ALPR data with out-of-state or federal agencies, and Virginia, which enacted similar restrictions. In Wisconsin, if the Price County Sheriff’s Office or the Phillips Police Department installed Flock cameras tomorrow, nothing in state law would prevent them from sharing that data with the FBI, exactly what the FBI’s new contract is designed to access.

The SignalTrace Product Page Disappeared, Then Reappeared

Here’s something worth noting: when we first tried to find the SignalTrace product page on June 1, 2026, the direct URL returned a 404 error. The product was listed in the site navigation under “Signal Intelligence System,” but the page itself was gone.

By June 2, the page was live again. But the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has no historical captures of this page, meaning it was never archived before, suggesting either recent changes or deliberate exclusion from web archiving.

The timing coincides with a viral post on June 1 by the surveillance accountability account DeFlock, which shared a SignalTrace promotional image and described its capabilities. That post received over 20,000 views and 600+ likes in its first day, significant attention for a product most people had never heard of.

What Price County Residents Should Know

  • Your fitness tracker, smartwatch, and phone broadcast Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals that can be captured by surveillance equipment without your knowledge or consent.
  • License plate readers are the visible layer of a much larger surveillance infrastructure. SignalTrace represents the invisible layer, tracking you by the devices you carry.
  • If nearby communities adopt Flock or ELSAG systems, your movements through those towns create data, even if your own town doesn’t use the technology.
  • Wisconsin’s lack of regulation means there are no legal barriers preventing local data from being shared with federal agencies under the FBI’s proposed contract.
  • The FBI RFP requires 75% US coverage. If Wisconsin communities opt in to commercial ALPR networks, the FBI gets that data automatically, and that data could include device signals, not just license plates.

How to Find Out More

If you want to know whether surveillance cameras are deployed in your area, you have a few options:

  • Open records request: Submit a public records request to the Price County Sheriff’s Office and the Phillips Police Department asking about any ALPR, LPR, or signal intelligence systems purchased, leased, or tested.
  • Flock Safety transparency page: Flock maintains a public transparency page listing some (but not all) of their law enforcement customers.
  • Contact your representatives: Wisconsin legislators have not yet introduced ALPR regulation. You can ask your state representative and senator whether they support data retention limits and sharing restrictions.
  • Attend county board meetings: Any surveillance equipment purchase using county funds should go through the board. Ask your supervisor what they know.

We’ll continue to follow this story as the FBI solicitation process moves forward and as Wisconsin communities grapple with the surveillance technology already operating in their neighborhoods.

Sources

Updated June 2, 2026. Have information about surveillance technology in Price County? Contact us confidentially at [email protected].

Sources

See also: our guide to free camping in Wisconsin, what makes Price County communities special and our guide to Price County public records

See also: our investigation into Flock cameras in Price County

See also: our guide to every town in Price County


See also: our Price County Board 2026 roster and meeting tracker

Frequently Asked Questions

Can ELSAG SignalTrace track me even if I don’t have a license plate?
Yes. SignalTrace tracks device signals: Bluetooth from your smartwatch, Wi-Fi from your phone, RFID from your key fob, not license plates. If you carry any electronic device, it can potentially identify you.

Is SignalTrace currently used in Price County?
We found no public evidence of ELSAG SignalTrace deployment anywhere in Wisconsin, including Price County. However, absence of public evidence doesn’t confirm absence, law enforcement surveillance purchases are rarely disclosed.

What’s the difference between a license plate reader and SignalTrace?
License plate readers photograph vehicle license plates and log location, time, and plate number. SignalTrace goes further by detecting Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RFID signals from personal devices, creating an electronic fingerprint that tracks individuals (not just vehicles) even on trails, in buildings, or on foot.

Does Wisconsin regulate license plate readers or signal intelligence?
No. Wisconsin has no statewide law governing ALPR data retention, access, sharing, or disclosure. Unlike California (SB 34) and Virginia, which restrict sharing with federal agencies, Wisconsin law places no limits on what law enforcement can do with surveillance data.

Can I find out if my local police department uses these systems?
You can submit a public records request to the Price County Sheriff’s Office or Phillips Police Department. Flock Safety also maintains a partial transparency page listing some law enforcement customers.

What is the FBI’s proposed ALPR contract?
The FBI published a solicitation on May 14, 2026, seeking nationwide near-real-time access to commercial ALPR data with 75% US geographic coverage, at a cost of up to $36 million over five years. The primary data sources would be Flock Safety and Motorola Solutions (Vigilant Solutions).

How can I contact Price County Fun with information about surveillance in my area?
Email us confidentially at [email protected].



Related: Highway 13

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