I’m sure you’ve seen any number of the hundreds of articles written about Flock mass surveillance at this point; the misuse, the blatant disregard for due diligence by multiple law enforcement agencies, and the overall lack of meaningful oversight. Flock isn’t the only AI-powered mass-surveillance system available, but it has become one of the most popular systems used by government agencies. So, while Flock isn’t exclusively what I’m speaking about, it’s what we’ll call these systems going forward.

So, Flock; what is it really?

Flock is a mass-surveillance system that uses information collected in public to monitor an area. Flock, in particular, uses automated license-plate readers to record vehicles traveling through an area, it also records your car make, model, color, dents, etc, and adds that information to the license plate data.Many people will argue that this isn’t any different from police officers seeing your license plate while you’re driving down the road. I would argue the exact opposite.

A police officer may see your vehicle and license plate at a particular moment. An AI-powered system operating 24 hours a day can record that information, store it, search it, compare it with other information, and use it to track your movements over time. This allows law enforcement to monitor where your vehicle has traveled, build patterns from that information, and retain a record of everywhere you’ve gone for however long the system or agency chooses to keep that data.

This is a 24/7 system that can potentially determine every time you’ve left your home, gone to the grocery store, visited Walmart, or driven to your buddy Tom’s house in the next town over. It can analyze that data and build patterns showing when you’re most likely to be home, at work, or somewhere else. That is not the same thing as a police officer seeing your license plate. It’s the difference between being observed once in public and having your movements continuously recorded, organized, analyzed, and made searchable.

These systems also aren’t exclusively installed or controlled by large federal agencies. It was bad enough when the NSA collected enormous amounts of information inside heavily protected data centers. Now, similar surveillance capabilities are being handed to local police departments, municipalities, private businesses, neighborhood associations, and other organizations. Your local city council member may not personally have access to the system, but someone in that local government or police department does.

The federal government and some of the largest companies in the world have repeatedly failed to prevent sensitive information from being leaked or stolen. Do you really believe Karen, door greeter at your local city police department, or any employee working for your local police department is going to stop someone from getting their hands on your travel data? It only takes one compromised password, one corrupt employee, one poorly configured system, or one person abusing their access. This opens your information to thieves, or worse yet, stalkers wanting to keep track of where their victims are at any given time.

And this is just license-plate mass surveillance. What about cameras operating in public spaces that use AI to track your face? Those systems can potentially know where you go, what stores you visit, who you meet, what you buy, and how many smoke breaks you took at work last week. When multiple surveillance systems are combined, they can build a remarkably complete picture of your daily life.

This type of data in the wrong hands will get people killed.Even in the “right” hands, these systems are already being used in ways that can harm people who have done nothing wrong. AI can misread license plates, confuse similar numbers or letters, produce false matches, or misidentify someone’s face. When that happens, Josh, making $15 an hour and working the beat, is expected to understand the technology, recognize when the computer may be wrong, verify the information, and perform legitimate detective work before treating an innocent person like a criminal. Josh may be a good person, and a good cop, but he isn’t qualified to evaluate an AI system. Most people aren’t.

AI-generated results should never be treated as proof. At most, they should be treated as unverified information requiring actual investigation and independent confirmation. The problem isn’t only that AI makes mistakes. The problem is that people tend to trust computers even when the computer is wrong. Put a confident-looking alert on an officer’s screen saying a vehicle is stolen or connected to a crime, and that alert can quickly become a traffic stop, drawn weapons, an arrest, or someone getting killed.

It’s Time to #DeFLOCK

So, what can you do about this outrageous use of mass surveillance?

The first thing is to find out where these cameras are located. Multiple crowdsourced sites have appeared to identify where these cameras exist and track them the way they track us. If you know where they are, you can better understand how heavily your community is being monitored and choose routes that avoid them when practical. Of course, that only works while these systems are still being deployed. Once they are everywhere, it will be too late.

The next step is to contact your local city representatives. Tell them that you don’t want Flock, or any other mass-surveillance system, in your municipality. Ask who approved the cameras, how much they cost, what information they collect, how long the data is kept, who has access to it, and which other agencies can search it.

Next, contact your state and federal representatives and demand that they put laws in place to protect us against mass surveillance. Law enforcement should not be able to track everyone in the hope that someone may eventually commit a crime. If police have a legitimate reason to track a particular person or vehicle, they should have to obtain a warrant. Suspicion first. Surveillance second. Not surveillance first and a search for justification later.

Find the cameras. Contact your representatives. Demand answers. Demand laws that protect your privacy.

It’s time to #DeFLOCK.

Flock Camera Locations:
DeFlock Map
AntiFlock Map

Anti-Flock Resources:
ACLU – Get the Flock Out Toolkit