Defending Against ALPR’s and Street Level Surveillance | Dragon Con EFForums 2015
The short version: A 2015 EFF panel on ALPR surveillance feels less like a time capsule and more like a warning we didn't heed as Flock's camera network exploded nationwide.
Our Take
Credit to K`Tetch Dureek for filming and preserving this 2015 Dragon Con EFForums panel, featuring EFF's Dave Maass alongside Blair Chintella, Nadia Kayyali, and Jon Padfield. Watching it now, a decade later, is a strange experience — the technical details about ALPR cameras and data retention are dated, but the core warning is not. These panelists were flagging the mass-surveillance risks of license plate readers back when Flock Safety barely existed. They were right to worry.
What's striking is how much the fears discussed here have been realized, and then some. In 2015, the conversation was largely about government-run ALPR systems and law enforcement retention policies. Today we're dealing with a privatized, subscription-based surveillance-as-a-service model that's blanketed thousands of towns with camera nodes, often installed with minimal public debate and shared across jurisdictions and even with federal agencies. The panel's core question — should we be concerned? — has aged into an obvious yes.
If this video makes you want to know what's actually watching your street today, check our camera map to see documented Flock locations near you, and hit take action for concrete steps to push back at the local level. The EFF crew was sounding the alarm in 2015; the rest of us are still catching up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KTetch Dureek, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.