Cybersecurity expert weighs privacy safeguards on Flock license plate cameras

Our Take

Credit to 48 News for getting a cybersecurity expert on record about Flock Safety's ALPR network, because most local coverage of these systems never gets past the police department talking points. The framing the expert lands on — how much privacy are people willing to trade — is the right question, but it's worth noting that almost nobody actually gets asked. These cameras go up on utility poles and street corners without a public vote, often through a quiet vendor contract, and the first most residents hear about it is when they notice a strange black box bolted to a pole near their house.

That's the core issue DeFlock keeps hammering on: this isn't a trade any individual driver consents to. Every plate that passes one of these cameras gets logged, timestamped, and stored, building a movement history on people who've done nothing wrong. A cybersecurity expert weighing in on data retention, access controls, and who can query that database is useful context, because the safeguards — or lack of them — are exactly where these systems tend to fail. Vendor promises about security don't mean much once local police, federal agencies, or a bad actor with the right login can pull months of someone's driving history.

If you want to see how far this has spread beyond the headlines, check our camera map to find Flock devices already logged near you. And if you'd rather not just watch the trade happen to your neighborhood, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level.