Hackers Tore Down A Flock Camera And Found 1.6 Million Images
The short version: A teardown by OhDangReally found one Flock camera held 1.6 million images and 50,000 vehicle logs in just three weeks — with the encryption key stored inside the box.
Our Take
Do the math on that single camera and the picture gets ugly fast: if one pole in one town can log 50,000 vehicles in 21 days, multiply that by the thousands of Flock units already bolted up across the country and you get a rolling, searchable record of where almost everyone drives, parked outside any courtroom, warrant, or public oversight hearing. Credit to OhDangReally for doing the unglamorous work of actually popping one of these boxes open instead of just taking Flock's marketing at face value.
The part that should alarm security people as much as privacy advocates is that the encryption key was sitting inside the device itself. That's not a hardening choice, that's a design that assumes nobody will ever physically access the hardware — a bad bet for equipment bolted to a pole in public right-of-way with no guard and no alarm. And the detail that the software is tagging people, not just plates, confirms what we've been saying: this was never just an "license plate reader." It's a general-purpose tracking and identification system that happens to have started with plates.
None of this requires a warrant, a subpoena, or even much skill — just a ladder and some patience. If that doesn't unsettle you, it should. Check our camera map to see what's watching your own neighborhood, and head to take-action if you want to push back on your local council before the next pole goes up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of OhDangReally, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.