Hunting Flock Cameras: An Anti-Surveillance Movement Gains Ground in the US

Flock Safety, a Georgia company valued at $8.4 billion, has installed its cameras in roughly 6,000 communities in nearly every US state. The devices — black cameras with a solar panel mounted on a pole — photograph passing cars and check their plates against large databases. By the company's own account, its readers scan plates billions of times a month. Critics see it as a tool of mass surveillance: the system collects location data on huge numbers of people without a warrant, regardless of whether they are suspected of anything. Flock insists that it “does not track vehicles, let alone specific people.”

Nighttime Raids

The protest is increasingly taking the form of direct action. The subject of this piece, who goes by the alias NoMark, is a well-known Minneapolis blogger with more than 700,000 followers whom the local press has dubbed “Batman.” The first time, he hid in the bushes by a pole for an hour before covering the lens and cutting the wires. Now it takes just a few minutes; he already has more than a dozen cameras to his name. He is sure the police are looking for him, but he wants to “send a message.”

He is not alone. The Guardian has counted at least 33 cases of Flock cameras being damaged or destroyed in 23 states, clearly as acts of protest. Some people splatter the devices with paint, some plant American flags beside them, some 3D-print attachments that block the view and leave snide messages behind. There are hoaxes, too: activists send out fake cease-and-desist letters supposedly from Flock itself.

Arrests and the Authorities' Response

Some have been charged. Jeffrey Sovern in Virginia is accused of damaging more than a dozen cameras; he calls them unconstitutional and hopes his case will become a catalyst for the anti-surveillance movement. In New Mexico, Jevon Martinez has been arrested and charged with destroying 13 cameras; he told a TV station that he would keep going, because he considers the cameras “a clear and present danger to public safety.”

The authorities are responding harshly. Dozens of “fusion centers” — hubs for sharing intelligence between federal and local agencies — sent out instructions this summer to track anti-Flock activity as part of protecting national security. The company itself published a post on how agencies should act when a camera is damaged, and reminded them that paid protection plans are available.

The Legal Front

Resistance is also taking peaceful forms. More than 80 cities, including Austin and Denver, have canceled or declined to renew their contracts with Flock. The DeFlock initiative has mapped more than 115,000 readers and lets you check whether your plate has been searched in the system. In Congress, a Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill requiring a warrant to access camera data.

Public sympathy is clearly not on the company's side: beneath news of the arrests, commenters vie with one another to invent good-natured alibis for the defendants. Flock's chief executive, Garrett Langley, at first called DeFlock a “terrorist” organization, but then apologized, acknowledging the company's “inadequate response” to people's concerns. Flock has already disabled its continuous-recording feature and its “human scream detection.”

Source: Hacker News