Flock cameras raise privacy concerns as company implements new safeguards
The short version: 13News Now reports on Flock's new privacy safeguards, but 'new safeguards' from a company that profits off blanket surveillance deserve scrutiny, not applause.
Our Take
Credit to 13News Now for pressing on this, but let's be clear-eyed about what's happening here: Flock Safety is a company facing mounting public pressure over its nationwide network of license plate readers, and it's responding the way companies under pressure usually do — with promises of "safeguards" rather than a fundamental rethink of the surveillance model itself. Policy tweaks and audit trails don't change the basic fact that these cameras log the movements of every driver, guilty or innocent, and feed that data into a system with a long track record of misuse, scope creep, and law enforcement access well beyond what communities were told to expect.
When a surveillance vendor announces new guardrails, the right question isn't "do we feel better now?" It's "who's watching to make sure these guardrails actually hold?" Self-imposed policies can be changed by the same company that wrote them, with zero public input. That's not accountability — it's PR management dressed up as reform.
If you want to know whether Flock has already set up shop near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for a company's internal safeguards to protect your privacy, see what you can do locally at take action.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 13News Now, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.