Ring camera founder says company will "lock" video as Flock faces surveillance backlash

Our Take

When even the guy who put a camera on every porch in America starts talking about "locking down" video access, you know the surveillance backlash has hit the mainstream. CBS News' segment on Jamie Siminoff's comments is worth watching because it shows Flock Safety has become such a lightning rod that competitors are scrambling to distance themselves and look like the responsible ones by comparison.

But let's not confuse a PR move with a policy fix. Ring cameras, whatever their problems, are owned by individual homeowners who choose whether to share footage with police. Flock's ALPR network is different in kind, not just degree: thousands of government- and HOA-installed cameras logging every car that passes, feeding a searchable database that police departments across the country can query without a warrant. Encryption promises from a doorbell company don't touch that.

The real story here isn't Ring versus Flock, it's how normalized automated tracking of ordinary people has become, to the point that companies are now competing on who surveils you more responsibly. That bar is way too low. If you want to see how many of these plate readers are already watching your street, check our map, and if you want to push back on your local city council before more get installed, our take action page has the tools.