I wonder if people would be as upset if folks were walking through the garage with a notepad and pencil? Collecting the same info.
The cops have worked that way for decades. Watch the Godfather movies...they do it at the wedding scene.
The information can be used by the cops, or even Walmart to identify where cars are coming from. For example, where I own some property on the Canadian border, one of the stores had an intern going through the parking lot checking out how many canadian customers were there so they could adjust their over-the-border advertising.
I am not crazy about the idea, but we DO have to register our cars, and driving them about in public leaves us open to this stuff. I would not let them do it in my private parking lot.
Might try to find a way to legally, maybe on the edge of legality, find a way to mask the plates from casual view from a drive by...
See how long it takes to really fish out those kinds of observations...
Obviously you don’t do that while your “on” the road...But when I am parked, it might be none of anyone’s bidness, from their point of view or capacity...