Yves here. Wow. There is so little good news on mass surveillance that every victory should be celebrated. And if it holds then the precedent here is important. Cities hit by the blowback of the flock using license plate reading under the guise of widespread visual data collection are unwilling to bet on an appeal being successful. Enjoy the schadenfreude of intense withdrawal. If we’re really lucky, Flock will suffer irreparable financial loss.
By Thomas Neuberger. Originally published at God’s Spies
This is the story of flock cameras you’ve never heard of. Swarm cameras are sold to gullible people and complicit people as simple “license plate readers”. Flock cameras are designed to keep an eye on cars. Of course, for safety. Because crime. But there are too many of them.
spyware supreme
The principle is this:
Flock Safety, a fast-growing startup that helps law enforcement locate vehicles with fixed cameras, has released several new features to make it easier for users to locate vehicles of interest.
Overall, the move moves the company’s software toward giving police the ability to search vehicles using any camera they have — a security camera on an ATM, a homeowner’s Ring doorbell, even a photo taken on someone’s cellphone. The company’s new Advanced Search package — which costs between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, depending on how many Flock Safety cameras the agency operates — includes a feature that allows users to upload a photo of a vehicle from any source and then search to see if any of the company’s cameras have seen it.
It doesn’t just search for license plates. The company has designed its software to recognize vehicle characteristics such as paint color, vehicle type and specific features such as roof rack.
Details are in the name: Swarm SecurityBecause “keeping you safe” is the reason for every intrusion, As one police-oriented site says (note: “you” here is the police):
7/10 crimes are committed using vehicles. Capture vehicle details needed to track clues and solve the crime. Flock Safety’s patented Vehicle Fingerprint™ technology lets you search based on vehicle make, color, type, license plate, license plate condition, missing plates, covered plates, paper plates and unique vehicle details like roof rack, bumper sticker and more.
The breadth of reach is astonishing. The herd captures whatever it sees. Everything. Not just vehicles. People. Everything.
Think this is a problem? So did a judge in Washington state, who ruled that the sweep was so large that its data was a public record. Public means open to everyone.
This has upset so many cities that the company has started losing contracts.
Across the United States, thousands of automated license plate readers silently keep an eye on the roads. Some people ride in a police cruiser [note: unrelated link, but a helluva story]Others sit on telephone poles or hang over intersections as cars whiz past. They record everything they encounter, even if the car is driving.
It’s a vast, largely invisible network that most people don’t think twice about until it makes the news.
Well, according to a recent ruling by a judge, it turns out that those photos are public data. And as soon as the decision came, local officials rushed to turn off the cameras.
The story behind the case is interesting:
The decision stems from a civil case involving the cities of Sedro-Woolley and Stanwood, Washington. The two sued to block public records requests filed by Oregon resident Jose Rodriguez. He works in Walla Walla and is trying to access the images as part of a broader investigation into government surveillance.
Judge Elizabeth Yost Niedzewski sided with Rodriguez, concluding that the data “qualifies as a public record under the Public Records Act.”
This decision caused both cities to immediately deactivate their flock systems. Swarm cameras are installed on public roads and they continuously take photographs of passing vehicles, including occupants, even if a crime is suspected.
Concerns about privacy are at the heart of the matter. City attorneys defending Rodriguez’s lawsuit said releasing the data would compromise the privacy of innocents. But they didn’t see any problem with it Government Keeping the same data.
Privacy for me, surveillance for everyone else
This leads us to the central problem of today’s surveillance situation. No one operating a camera wants to be under surveillance. For example, one reason city officials object to releasing herd data is that the data recorded includes them themselves. Cameras are on them too; They can also be tracked. everything means Everything For these cameras everywhere.
The rich want to hide their crimes (hello, Mr. Epstein’s friends), ICE wants to hide its thugs. Billionaires think you don’t care about their affairs.
Yet they want full rights to go deep inside you. See ICE agents above. Then consider that one use of flock is to help ICE do what it does, by making the entire world as naked as possible.
Or consider the tactic used by cities like Eugene and OR to hide herd cameras from view so they can record without being monitored.
Or that Congress had no problem with domestic spying, as long as they weren’t spied on. Here Feinstein makes, ahem, a constitutional argument.
Very ironic?
There’s a lot more to say, but I’ll leave it there for now. A rebellion against the herd is spreading. Stay tuned.
