‘Don’t Take The Bait’: A Whole Lotta People Aren’t Buying Flock’s Latest PR Move

Flock Safety, whose surveillance cameras blanket the United States, released a slate of new privacy and transparency “safeguards” Thursday amid reports of police officers abusing the system and spying on innocent people. But critics say the move is largely about optics, warning Americans not to miss the forest for the trees: that a surveillance state has been built right before their eyes.

“As long as Flock continues to value profits over privacy and continues to treat legitimate privacy concerns as mere PR issues, we are going to continue to see more Flock efforts like today’s that seek to create headlines about positive reforms when few if any impactful changes are actually made,” Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the Daily Caller.

Tens of thousands of Flock cameras are installed in communities across the U.S., and have triggered widespread backlash among Americans, activist groups such as DeFlock, and civil rights groups, such as the ACLU and the New Civil Liberties Alliance. (RELATED: ROOKE: Surveillance State Has Arrived, And Masked Heroes Are Already Fighting Back)

Flock cameras are automated license plate readers (ALPRs), and although they have been used by law enforcement to catch criminals, the cameras also sweep up private data that then gets uploaded to a searchable database. Participating law enforcement agencies — from anywhere in the country — can access this database without a warrant. These surveillance powers have enabled numerous abuses, including one instance in which a police chief used Flock to stalk his ex-girlfriend.

A video recorded at Slayter Creek Park in Anna, Texas (~40 miles north of Dallas) reveals that 8 government Flock surveillance cameras have been installed directly facing a kids' splash pad, playground, and skate park. Parents are raising serious privacy concerns, questioning why… pic.twitter.com/XejytajP6L

Flock announced Thursday the company was implementing safeguards to enhance privacy and accountability, and prevent such abuses. The company now recommends that participating law enforcement agencies retain surveillance data for 7 days instead of 30 days, and has introduced “Evidence Mode” and “proactive lockout.”

“When a user’s activity meets defined criteria for abnormal behavior, Flock will automatically suspend access pending administrator review. The goal is to intervene before misuse becomes recurring or widespread,” the company said in a blog post.

Flock will also require customers to use “Audit Assistance” — a feature that had already been available for the past 16 weeks — that flags any “abnormal activity” in the Flock data system, and is urging police departments to use a “Transparency Portal.”

“More than 1,500 agencies have published a Flock Transparency Portal. If your agency has not published one, please, turn it on,” the company said. “The portal gives your community a direct view of your policy, retention period, sharing partners, and search activity, in your agency’s own words.”

The company concluded its blog post: “These changes reflect years of work and deliberation. They are not the end of that work, but simply the continuation of our commitment to both safety and privacy. We are not perfect, so we will keep listening, improving, and building a better standard for public safety technology together.” (RELATED: How Flock Cameras Almost Had Two Innocent Drivers Killed)

Flock critics are less than impressed.

John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, warned Americans, “Don’t take the bait.”

“Flock’s PR team is trying to reframe the conversation towards police departments & a ‘bad apples’ narrative, and away from Flock themselves,” he posted Thursday on X. “The core issue is that Flock is a private company trying to create a mass surveillance system, and grow so fast that America can’t uninstall them. Don’t take the bait.”

In a separate post, Scott-Railton argued the U.S. might well be on its way toward a Chinese-style surveillance state.

“American history tells us: Mass surveillance always gets abused. It’s a matter of time and political pressure,” he said. “And we’re even less protected from mass surveillance run by private companies. Remember, the onramp for mass surveillance in China was claims about crime reduction numbers. Now they are a political surveillance state. Don’t let Flock’s new crisis PR push reframe the debate.”

The ACLU published Marlow’s analysis breaking down Flock’s latest announcement. In one example, Marlow pointed to Flock’s claim that local police can now decide which offenses other customers can search their data for.

“This is not new. Flock has attempted this before, and the security measure failed because users were easily able to circumvent the system’s requirement that police input the purpose of their search,” Marlow noted.

“Given that Flock’s latest announcement still appears more focused on addressing a perceived PR problem than the significant harms its products create, this is hardly the step forward Flock wants us to think it is Change may still come as Flock faces this ever growing threat to its corporate viability, and we will continue to analyze the company’s proposals fairly and honestly, but we certainly won’t be holding our breath,” he concluded.

Flock Safety founder and CEO Garret Langley also received a torrent of criticism in replies to his X post announcing the supposed guardrails.

“Garrett my buddies and I want come by your house later and set up some cameras, we just wanna make sure there’s no crimes in your neighborhood, will you allow us to do that? I pinky promise we will protect your privacy,” Harrison Berger, a correspondent at The American Conservative, replied.