What’s Changing at Flock: Strengthening Privacy, Security & Accountability

Our Take

Credit where it's due: Garrett Langley and Flock are responding to years of pressure from journalists, privacy advocates, and local fights over camera deployments. Shortening the default retention window to 7 days and killing live video streaming off ALPR cameras are real concessions — Flock wouldn't make them if the backlash hadn't been working. That's a sign the pushback matters.

But read the fine print. These are recommended defaults set by the vendor, not binding limits set by law or by the agencies that actually buy and operate the cameras. A police department can still crank retention back up, share data across state lines, or ignore the 'guardrails' entirely — Flock is still selling the surveillance infrastructure and still profiting from how widely it spreads, even as it markets itself as the industry's privacy conscience. Self-regulation from the company whose business model depends on more cameras and more data flowing between agencies deserves scrutiny, not applause.

The real accountability has to come from the outside: public records requests, city council votes, state legislation, and residents who know whether a Flock camera is sitting on their street. Check our camera map to see what's been deployed near you, and use our take-action resources if you want your local government's retention and sharing policies in writing — not just in a corporate blog post.