What Are Flock Cameras and Who is Smashing Them?
You may have heard of Flock because the Atlanta-based tech company is in the news a lot these days. There was a ton of buzz around its (now-cancelled) deal to access Amazon’s Ring camera data, creating an unprecedented surveillance data pool. It’s also shared data with ICE without telling its customers. And now protestors across the U.S. are dismantling and smashing its cameras. But Flock is first and foremost an automated license plate reader company.
How local police add to Flock’s data network
Here’s how it works: Towns pay Flock an installation fee and $2,500-$3,000 a year. Then the company installs a solar-powered camera on an eight- to 13-foot pole. It scans every vehicle driving by and uploads footage to the parent company. Flock notes the license plate as well as other details to create a “footprint” of every car. Then it tracks that car across its nationwide network of cameras.
If a department wants to find someone, they just type in their license plate. If they want to know where someone’s been, they just punch in their license plate.
Love technical details? Read my deep dive on how automatic license plate readers work. Or keep scrolling to learn about Flock protests.
Individual municipalities may have strict rules about how long police departments can keep these scans, and even when they can access them. But some departments voluntarily share their data with federal agencies, such as ICE, without a warrant. The Flock corporation claims it currently has no contact with ICE, but it has engaged in past pilot programs, sharing its data with the Department of Homeland Security. Note that this would include data that local authorities—who are renting the cameras—didn’t consent to share.
According to Brian Merchant, activists in at least five states have been systematically destroying Flock cameras. Some were forms of protest, done publicly. For example, the town of La Mesa asked to remove the cameras, but authorities decided to keep them anyway. Then folks began taking them down by hand and leaving them on the street. Other, more covert destruction is widespread and may leverage whistleblower websites such as DeFlock.org, which tracks tens of thousands of cameras.
Barking up the wrong camera pole
Yes, Flock is a tech company built on mass surveillance. But it is a startup that appears to take public sentiment into account, as it has canceled unpopular pilot programs. It currently states that it doesn’t sell any of its data to private parties. Meanwhile, Motorola proudly proclaims that it has collected over 9 billion license plate scans through various subsidiaries. And Motorola is happy to sell your driving data to the highest bidder.
