Connecticut Passes SB 4, the Strongest State Privacy Bill in Years

Our Take

Credit to Verified Privacy VPN for breaking down SB 4 section by section, because the details here actually matter for anyone tracking ALPR networks. A 141-6 House vote and 31-4 Senate vote on a privacy bill is not normal — legislators from both parties just agreed that unchecked data brokering and surveillance infrastructure have gone too far. The provision restricting license plate reader data sharing is the part we care about most, since Flock Safety's entire business model depends on police departments treating that data as a commodity to trade across jurisdictions and, increasingly, with federal agencies.

What's notable is the video's point that state bills almost never name federal agencies as a threat. That's the quiet part out loud: local ALPR networks have become a backdoor for federal surveillance that would otherwise require a warrant. When Connecticut forces disclosure of facial recognition in public spaces and clamps down on geolocation sales, it's acknowledging that your car's movements, your face, and your daily patterns have been treated as inventory for years with zero public accounting.

One state law won't dismantle the national patchwork of Flock cameras, but it's a template other legislatures can steal. If you want to see how many of these cameras are already sitting on your commute, check our camera map, and if you want to push similar restrictions in your own state, start with our take-action resources.