By Merrilee Gasser, The Center Square
In Summary:
Thousands of Flock cameras photograph vehicles across Florida, recording license plates, locations, and travel times for law enforcement and private organizations. Privacy concerns and reported misuse have prompted scrutiny of the technology, but smartphones routinely generate even more detailed location and behavioral data. The comparison raises a broader question about where consumers draw the line on surveillance.
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Thousands of AI-powered Flock cameras across Florida track drivers’ locations and identify vehicle features every day. But smartphones often collect data far more deeply. Where do consumers draw the line?
Related: Florida Gas Prices Drift Lower Despite Rising Oil Prices.
DeFlock, a project that maps ALPR installations and advocates against their use, has identified more than 8,000 Flock cameras in Florida.
ALPRs photograph passing vehicles and extract information including license plate numbers, time, and location.
Over 5,000 law enforcement agencies, 1,000 businesses, and 6,000 homeowners’ associations have used the technology, according to Flock Safety, the company that sells it.
In Florida, some of the places that first welcomed Flock are having buyer’s remorse. Sumter County suspended the use of Flock cameras after it came to light that a detective had abused the databases.
Elsewhere, a Lake City Council Member tried to push for a nonbinding referendum on the ballot to let voters weigh in on their use. His resolution was shot down after the police chief told the council the Flock system had made a significant contribution to reducing gun violence in the city.
Still, concerns over abuse and privacy have led Flock Safety to announce updates this month designed to improve privacy, accountability, and security.
But while the battle over Flock cameras is waged, a smaller and far more prevalent source of location tracking and data farming isn't facing the same debate: the smartphone that approximately 91% of Americans use every day, according to Pew Research.
While it’s widely known that smartphones track users’ locations, privacy advocates say consumers are generally unaware of how their location data is shared with third parties and could face increased surveillance when that data is shared with law enforcement, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Flock cameras can collect information as a driver passes them, but the smartphone inside the vehicle can reveal the driver’s location through mobile signal tracking from towers, cell site simulators, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tracking, and location leaks from apps and websites.
One important distinction is how police obtain the information. The U.S. Supreme Court has generally required warrants for law enforcement to obtain historical cell-site location information from wireless carriers. Police searches of existing ALPR databases have not traditionally required the same warrant.
“The most prevalent threat to our privacy is the slow, steady, relentless accumulation of relatively mundane data points about how we live our lives,” wrote Managing Director of Electronic Frontier Foundation Gennie Gebhart and EFF Special Advisor Bennett Cyphers in a report on the technology of corporate surveillance. “This includes things like browsing history, app usage, purchases, and geolocation data. These humble parts can be combined into an exceptionally revealing whole.”
The comparison doesn’t downplay privacy concerns tied to ALPRs. The company points to examples of crime prevention and case solving. Critics like the ACLU argue less than 1% of cars scanned by ALPRs are connected to any crime.
When Flock recommended cutting data retention periods from 30 days to 7 days, along with other changes, CEO Garrett Langley went further, saying legislators need to do their part to steward the technology.
“Mandate real auditing on every law enforcement data system. Raise the penalties for misuse,” Langley said.
Key Points:
- DeFlock has mapped more than 8,000 Flock cameras across Florida.
- Automated license plate readers record vehicle images, plate numbers, locations and times.
- Sumter County suspended its use of Flock cameras after a detective reportedly abused database access.
- Flock Safety has announced privacy, accountability and security changes, including a recommendation to shorten data-retention periods.
- Smartphones can expose more extensive location information through cell towers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, apps and websites.
