It’s also helped out more than one traveler who forgot where they parked. Picture an airport like Logan in Boston, where there are multiple garages, multiple levels, and they all look the same.
While I’ve not had to avail myself of the service, I know several who have. (I learned early in my traveling career to write down the location on my ticket, and put it in my wallet prior to getting out of the car.)
At one of the shopping centre car parks here, they have a sign saying that a condition of entry is that they will photograph your number plate. This is done, ostensibly, because they allow a three-hour free period of parking. But only allow one per day. People would leave at the three hours, drive around the block and come back in to get another three hour block. While I was driving in one day, a customer on the exit lane was very upset because they had proof of his vehicle entering some 5 hours earlier, and he had to pay for his parking.
I’ve never seen an airport carpark with a free parking time limit, but as Algher mentioned, it would stop people abusing the “Maximum daily rate for lost tickets” that lots of carparks have.
Assuming that you flew in and out of the airport, the TSA already knows about your comings and goings from the passenger list. The parking lot might turn over their data to the authorities if asked, but the airlines certainly do.
At the El Paso airport, they keep track of where every car is parked. I was that poor schmoe once, walking through the lot looking for my car. Finally a shuttle driver stops, asks for the plate number, and then drives me straight to my car. :smack:
I’m with Dag. You got on a plane. That means your name and destination and about 98 other pieces of information got entered into about a zillion different databases for a zillion different reasons.
If this is the sort of thing you worry about, that they have a video of your license plate is the least of your problems.