Palantir Can Flock Itself
The short version: A YouTube breakdown from Sir Escanor argues that Flock's 'we don't work with Palantir' denial is technically true but practically meaningless once you trace where the data actually flows.
Our Take
Sir Escanor's framing here is the one we keep coming back to: corporate denials are carefully worded legal statements, not descriptions of reality. Flock Safety can truthfully say it has no direct contract with Palantir while local police departments, fusion centers, and federal partners still shuttle Flock-captured plate reads into systems that eventually touch Palantir-powered platforms. The denial answers a narrow question nobody important was asking. The real question is what happens to the data after it leaves the camera, and that's a much harder thing for a PR team to deny.
This is why "follow the pipes" is the right instinct. ALPR vendors love to talk about their own data retention policies and access controls, but once a plate read is shared through Flock's interagency sharing network, it's effectively out of their hands and into a lattice of local, state, and federal systems with wildly different rules, retention windows, and oversight. A truthful non-denial about one vendor relationship doesn't tell you anything about the dozens of agencies that can query your movements once they're networked in.
Credit to Sir Escanor for doing the legwork instead of taking the press statement at face value — that's exactly the kind of scrutiny this technology demands. If you want to see how far this pipe network actually reaches in your own backyard, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on it locally, our take-action page has the tools.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Sir Escanor (Hopium Slayer), published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.