Early this year, my home city of Bend, Oregon, ended its contract with surveillance company Flock Safety, following months of public pressure and concerns around weak data privacy protections. Flock's controversial AI-powered license plate cameras were shut down, and its partnership with local law enforcement ended. ...
Though Flock doesn't have a direct partnership with federal agencies (a blurry line I'll discuss more), law enforcement agencies are free to share data with departments like ICE, and they frequently do. ...
Following Super Bowl ads about finding lost dogs, Flock was under scrutiny about its planned partnership with Ring, Amazon's security brand. The integration would have allowed police to request the use of Ring-brand home security cameras for investigations. Following intense public backlash, Ring cut ties with Flock just like my city did. ...
See the full story here: https://www.cnet.com/home/security/when-flock-comes-to-town-why-cities-are-axing-the-controversial-surveillance-technology/