Flock cameras surveillance privacy: Is Bigfoot Tracking Us? Vermont Law & Myanmar Minerals

Our Take

Credit to Ben O'Donnell for finding a genuinely weird entry point into the Flock Safety conversation — Bigfoot cryptid humor and Myanmar rare-earth mining aren't where you'd expect a surveillance segment to start. But the detour works because it underlines something we keep hammering on: these cameras don't exist in a vacuum. The hardware, the data pipelines, and the legal frameworks (or lack thereof) are all part of one supply chain of surveillance, and most Americans have no idea how deep it runs in their own town.

The real meat here is Vermont's Data Privacy and Online Surveillance Act, which is exactly the kind of state-level pushback that's been rare in this fight. Most municipalities sign a Flock contract, bolt cameras to poles, and never revisit the question of retention limits, audit trails, or who gets to query the database. A law that actually puts guardrails on ALPR use — even an imperfect one — is worth covering in detail, because it gives other states a template to copy instead of reinventing the wheel every time a city council debates this stuff.

Whether or not you buy the Bigfoot bit, the underlying warning is real: these networks are expanding faster than the laws meant to govern them. If you want to see how many cameras are already logging plates near you, check our camera map, and if you're in a state without protections like Vermont's, our take-action page has a starting point for pushing local officials to catch up.