City officials in Boston have deactivated every license plate reader provided by Flock Safety after learning the company allows police departments throughout the US to access their local data. The decision follows a September 23 Senate hearing examining the company's surveillance network and how it shares resident data. Senator Dick Durbin noted that Flock CEOs failed to attend the hearing, suggesting the executives were nervous about appearing on camera.
Testimony at the hearing included a woman who spent 13 days in jail after Flock data falsely linked her to a fatal crash and a cybersecurity researcher who found Flock accounts for sale by Russian dark web vendors due to a lack of multi-factor authentication. Prosecutors have also charged five Indianapolis police officers with misusing the tech to stalk partners, alleging one officer searched over 1,000 plates to engineer encounters. An Arizona sheriff has similarly ended his county's contract with the firm, citing risks to Fourth Amendment privacy rights.
Key sources
- SOURCE@demzdeliver“Boston has disabled all Flock cameras after learning the data was available to law enforcement nationwide”x.com
- SOURCE@hqnewsnow“I spent 13 days in jail for a crash I had nothing to do with”x.com
- SOURCE@hqnewsnow“Flock law enforcement accounts for sale by a Russian vendor on a dark web marketplace”x.com
- SUPPORT@intcyberdigest“one officer searched more than 1,000 plates and used the data to engineer encounters”x.com
- SUPPORT@hqnewsnow“Arizona Sheriff who ended the Flock camera contract in his county”x.com
- SUPPORT@hqnewsnow“I sure wish the Flock CEOs would've joined us today. Obviously they're nervous about being on camera”x.com
- SUPPORT@richardhanania“Police officers increasingly abuse Flock cameras”x.com
- SOURCEmarketbrief.now