Boston's Flock contract banned data sharing. It took three days to find it switched on.

Our Take

Let that sink in: Boston negotiated a contract specifically to keep its license plate data walled off from outside agencies, and according to the Boston Globe reporting covered by Flock U, Flock Safety switched sharing on anyway. Not a hack. Not a rogue employee. Just a setting flipped in a system the city didn't fully control, sitting there leaking data for three days before anyone noticed. That's not a bug, that's the business model — these networks are built for maximum interconnection, and "no" apparently means "no, until it's convenient."

This is exactly the pattern we keep flagging at DeFlock: cities sign contracts believing they're getting narrow, local tools with hard boundaries, and then discover the boundaries are more like suggestions. Once plate data crosses jurisdiction lines, there's no calling it back. It doesn't matter what the city council approved if the vendor's default architecture assumes sharing is on unless someone catches it and turns it off. Credit to Flock U for digging into the Globe's reporting and asking the obvious question everyone should be asking: if this happened in Boston, with lawyers and a signed contract, what's happening in towns with neither?

If you live near one of these systems, don't assume your city's privacy promises are being honored on the backend — verify it. Check our camera map to see what's watching your area, and hit up take action for tools to push your local officials on audits and real accountability, not just contract language.