There are over 120,000 of Flock’s automatic licence sheet scholar (ALPR) cameras installed each complete the US. Flock’s cameras, and others for illustration them, usage AI to place and way vehicles based connected their licence sheet number, make, model, color, and different info, networked together to way vehicles and people’s movements passim the time and crossed the country.
Dozens of communities person canceled contracts for the cameras aliases turned them off, including Los Angeles, arsenic officials person pushed for much limits connected the information they collect, who has entree to it, and really it tin beryllium utilized successful the future. Earlier this year, Amazon-owned Ring canceled a business pinch Flock aft online backlash.
Flock CEO: ‘We sewage this 1 wrong’
Image: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Surveillance tech institution Flock is rolling retired updates to reside reports of cops crossed the state abusing its devices to stalk ex-romantic partners and others. CEO Garrett Langley is delivering a mea culpa, and successful an question and reply pinch The Verge, says he’s changed his mind connected what work Flock bears for really rule enforcement uses it.
Over the coming weeks, Flock will statesman implementing updates that see requiring a antecedently optional characteristic called Audit Assistance, which flags “abnormal hunt behavior” and instantly locks retired suspicious users until an administrator reviews their activity. All users will besides beryllium required to participate lawsuit codes to tally searches, ideally limiting the expertise to tally a query for individual aliases nefarious purposes. This tin beryllium overridden by an administrator for emergency situations, for illustration search a missing child, but those will automatically beryllium flagged for review.
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Flock cameras? Target practice.
As BoingBoing notes, a Tennessee campaigner for Congress was charged for 4 counts of felony vandalism for allegedly shooting up Flock cameras. The Blount County sheriff’s agency says the fishy admitted to shooting the “ALPR systems” complete astir a week successful July. To opportunity these systems are unpopular is becoming an understatement.
Another grim portent for our AI policing future.
Joel Feder astatine The Drive reported a frightening story astir really Flock cameras, precocious suspended by the LAPD, tracked him successful Minnesota and sent constabulary aft him complete “stolen plates.” (They were not.) Flock says its cameras worked “correctly” successful the lead-up to a perchance deadly incident. But present we are in our caller era of machine policing.
The LAPD has suspended its usage of Flock’s licence sheet readers, for now.
An unnamed spokesperson for Flock told media outlets that unspecified “misconceptions” led to the pause.
No, Flock isn’t threatening group for debating surveillance
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
On Thursday, the Instagram relationship for a speech bid successful Newport Beach, CA posted a photograph of what appeared to beryllium a cease and desist missive from the surveillance exertion institution Flock Safety. Flock has received important backlash complete its exertion and activity pinch rule enforcement agencies, and this missive kicked disconnected yet different activity of disapproval against the institution for allegedly trying to unopen down discussions of its work.
“WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED,” the group, The Saturday Salon, wrote successful the Instagram post, which has much than 3,000 likes. A abstracted station astir the missive connected Bluesky has more than 360 reposts. The matter of the missive demands that the group extremity hosting conversations astir Flock’s surveillance technology. In a DM from The Saturday Salon’s Instagram account, Schuyler Lifschultz tells The Verge that it “found this missive taped to our beforehand door.”
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The all-too-predictable Flock stalking problem.
A study from 404 Media shows really much than a twelve cases astir the US person shown constabulary using Flock to illegally stalk victims. Flock acknowledged it’s alert of 15 incidents, claiming“each surfaced because of the transparency and accountability features deliberately built into our platform.”
But that doesn’t bespeak really immoderate victims only recovered retired by utilizing the HaveIBeenFlocked.com website that Flock has tried to person taken down, aliases the many years of akin reports pinch different surveillance tech, a problem the NSA tagged “LOVEINT.”
Let’s talk astir Ring, mislaid dogs, and the surveillance state
Today, let’s talk astir the camera institution Ring, mislaid dogs, and the surveillance state.
You astir apt saw this advertisement during the Super Bowl a mates of weekends ago:
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Ring’s Flock breakup doesn’t hole its existent problem
Image: The Verge
Flock is “pausing further exploration of a imaginable business pinch Ring.”
Over the past respective months, Flock and Ring explored whether their respective platforms could responsibly complement 1 different successful support of nationalist safety. Throughout those discussions, Flock engaged extensively pinch customers, nationalist officials, and organization stakeholders to understand expectations astir accountability, transparency, and lawful use.
Based connected that engagement, Flock and Ring person chosen to cancel the planned integration.
Ring cancels its business pinch Flock Safety aft surveillance backlash
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
Following aggravated backlash to its partnership pinch Flock Safety, a surveillance exertion institution that useful pinch rule enforcement agencies, Ring has announced it is canceling the integration.
In a connection published connected Ring’s blog and provided to The Verge up of publication, the institution said: “Following a broad review, we wished the planned Flock Safety integration would require importantly much clip and resources than anticipated. We truthful made the associated determination to cancel the integration and proceed pinch our existent partners … The integration ne'er launched, truthful nary Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.”
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Dozens of Flock AI camera feeds were conscionable retired there
Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photos from Getty Images
The livestreams connected to much than 60 of Flock’s AI-powered surveillance cameras were near disposable to position connected the web, allowing personification to spot unrecorded feeds of each location without needing a username aliases password, according to findings from tech YouTuber Benn Jordan and 404 Media.
Flock is simply a exertion institution that useful with thousands of rule enforcement agencies and businesses to deploy a web of AI-powered cameras crossed the country. It besides precocious partnered pinch Ring, giving Flock customers the expertise to petition footage from users successful Ring’s Neighbors app. As noted by 404 Media, galore of Flock’s cameras are made to scan a vehicle’s licence plates. However, the feeds exposed to the net link to Flock’s Condor cameras, which tin pan, tilt, and zoom to automatically way group and vehicles.
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AI annotators overseas whitethorn beryllium reviewing Flock licence sheet camera footage from the US.
An exposed dataset from the licence sheet surveillance institution Flock, which is known to activity pinch the US Border Patrol and ICE via section police, showed that immoderate of the AI annotators paid to categorize American licence plates are located successful the Philippines.
After 404 Media contacted Flock for comment, the dataset disappeared.
Amazon’s Ring now useful pinch video surveillance institution Flock
Image: Dan Seifert / The Verge
Unprotected licence sheet surveillance cameras fto anyone pinch a web browser tune in
Automated licence sheet nickname systems, besides known arsenic ALPR aliases simply LPR systems, person go progressively celebrated — and controversial — devices for rule enforcement successful caller years. The systems tin automatically photograph and grounds information connected licence plates successful existent time, drafting the ire of privateness advocates for illustration those astatine the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has conscionable released accusation connected information vulnerabilities successful ALPR systems crossed the country.
“Earlier this year, EFF learned that much than a 100 ALPR cameras were exposed online, often pinch wholly unfastened Web pages accessible by anyone pinch a browser,” the statement says in the caller study released today.
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