You Think Flock at ULTA is Bad? Get a Load of Lowe's
The short version: Fight for the Future's video exposes how retailers like Lowe's and Ulta are quietly feeding Flock's ALPR network, turning parking lots into surveillance checkpoints.
Our Take
Fight for the Future's latest video pulls back the curtain on something we've been warning about for a while: Flock Safety's camera network isn't just a police department problem anymore, it's a corporate one. When a hardware store or a beauty retailer bolts an ALPR camera to the side of a building, they're not just watching for shoplifters. They're feeding license plate data, timestamps, and location patterns into a nationwide database that can be queried by law enforcement, data brokers, and who knows who else down the line.
This matters because corporate deployments fly under the radar in a way police cameras don't. There's no city council meeting, no public records request, no local news story about a Lowe's parking lot camera. It's just quietly installed infrastructure, and most shoppers have no idea their plate is being logged every time they run in for lumber or lipstick. That opacity is exactly how mass surveillance networks grow unchecked, one retail chain at a time.
Credit to Fight for the Future for connecting these dots and naming names. If you want to see how far this has already spread in your own neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back against retailers and city governments installing this tech without real oversight, our take-action resources are a good place to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Fight for the Future, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.