3 Minutes or 5 Years? How Long Flock Cameras Keep Where You Drove | Jim asks Claude | Rewired #Short

Our Take

Credit to Jim at Rewired for turning a simple AI query into a map of America's patchwork surveillance laws. The numbers are stark: New Hampshire forces near-instant deletion while Alabama holds your location data for half a decade, and states like California, Illinois, Maryland, Florida, and DC have no retention cap whatsoever. That's not a privacy framework — it's a lottery, and most drivers have no idea which rules apply to them as they cross state lines.

The Norfolk case Jim cites cuts to the real issue: it's never about one photo. A single plate capture is a traffic camera. Four hundred seventy-five captures in four and a half months is a pattern-of-life file built without a warrant, a judge, or your consent. When retention runs indefinite, that file doesn't fade — it just grows, waiting for whoever gets database access next, whether that's a cop, a hacker, or an agency with different priorities than the one that installed the camera.

This is exactly why we built our camera map — so you can see what's actually watching your routes, not just guess based on which state you live in. If your town has no retention limit or no public policy at all, that's a fight worth having at your next city council meeting. Check our take-action page for how to push back.