The Government is Monitoring Anti- #Flock #TikTok and #Instagram Accounts

https://www.404media.co/the-government-is-monitoring-anti-flock-tiktok-and-instagram-accounts/

#privacy #surveillance #FreeSpeech #ALPR #police

“Surveillance technology startup Flock announced a series of new policies and tools on Thursday, claiming they will help curb abuse of its automated license plate camera reader systems and help keep its law enforcement customers accountable.

Flock is now recommending police departments retain data for seven days rather than the previous 30 days. Along with this change, the company introduced what it calls “Evidence Mode,” which can be turned on when customers need to retain data for longer periods in “exceptional cases” and requires a specific case number. Customers will also now be able to set limits on the data they share with other customers based on the type of offense that’s under investigation.

The company also highlighted a tool called “Audit Assistance” as one of the key changes. Flock launched the tool in April. Since then, Flock said “more than one-third” of its customers have turned it on, and the startup is now requiring all customers to enable it by the end of the year.

Flock said Audit Assistance “detects abnormal activity and flags it for Administrator review,” according to the blog post released Thursday.”

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/13/flock-says-its-new-tool-will-help-identify-police-abuse-but-hasnt-explained-how-it-works

#USA #Flock #Surveillance #PoliceState

“If you receive a notification like this, take it seriously. We’ve explained before what happens when someone gets a notification saying they’ve been targeted. It may not mean that you have been successfully hacked, but you should still take immediate steps to protect your device and data.

The push notification also opens up advice on who to reach out to for help. You will also be advised to switch on Lockdown Mode, a security feature that makes it far more difficult for spyware attacks to succeed. According to Apple, it has yet to see a case where someone’s device was hacked while Lockdown Mode was enabled.

Spyware attacks are generally rare, but the proliferation of the surveillance technology in recent years has allowed them to be abused by governments and deployed against critics, including members of civil society.“

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/13/if-apple-sends-you-a-push-notification-alerting-you-to-a-spyware-attack-take-it-seriously

#CyberSecurity #Apple #iPhone #iOS #Spyware #Surveillance

Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a professor at the George Washington University Law School whose scholarship has focused on #policing, #BigData #surveillance & the #FourthAmendment, said Thursday’s shifts were “better than the opposite” but called for further scrutiny of the #technology in the form of “sustained democratic engagement with the rules & judicial checks on access at a minimum.”

#Flock #law #privacy #InfoSec #immigration #MassSurveillance #tech #AbuseOfPower #deflock

#Flock CEO Garrett Langley said many product changes will make what were once optional guardrails mandatory for its users to implement by Jan 1.

Among them∶ #LawEnforcement customers will have to implement an audit tool intended to flag abnormal search behavior. When the system detects abnormal behavior, the user would be locked out pending an internal review, the company said in a description of the changes provided ahead of Thursday’s announcement.

#law #privacy #immigration #surveillance

#Flock Safety, the #surveillance #technology company increasingly under scrutiny from lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties advocates & citizens across the #US, announced Thursday that it is making changes to its platform intended to quell #privacy concerns & address documented abuses of its system by some members of #LawEnforcement.

#law #privacy #InfoSec #immigration #MassSurveillance #AbuseOfPower #deflock
https://apnews.com/article/flock-license-plate-cameras-surveillance-deflock-2a93bc075e2f7ffcca9e04a35d75a3fe?utm_source=app&utm_medium=iOS_share&utm_campaign=copy_link

"...At one anti-ICE event at a church, agents documented the license plate information of attendees, the records showed. When two agents were approached by a man who “asked if they were ICE”, the agent responded, falsely, that they were not...." #surveillance #bigbrother #privacy #uspol

The Guardian: US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal

"...Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year...."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters

#USpol #bigbrother #surveillance

Per the Guardian: "..One investigative record showed DHS used administrative subpoenas to obtain “wire transfers from various financial institutions to and from” SEIU, one of the largest unions in the US. Investigators also requested that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provide financial data from the Communications Workers of America, an international union, the records showed....DHS further obtained financial records related to the Sunrise Movement, a national non-profit focused on the climate crisis."

#unions #uspol #bigbrother #surveillance #climate #climateemergency

“The modern vehicle is infused with digital technology at every point. The features present in vehicles available in the United States pale in comparison to what a driver can buy in China today, and those features are quickly going global. Increasingly, cars are getting compared to smartphones, prompting fears they’ll also be upgraded much more regularly than people currently replace their vehicles. If electric vehicles are supposed to be an environmental savior, such rapid refreshing would further erode any climate benefit.

This is what all the big promises have amounted to for most people: cars that are more and more expensive, devoid of physical controls which makes vehicles less safe, and constantly monitoring everything you do with the option for manufacturers to change whatever they want in your vehicle, including sticking a Spider-Man ad in front of you and presenting it as a fun “surprise.””

https://disconnect.blog/bmws-in-car-spider-man-ad-is-a-warning-sign/

#BMW #EVs #Surveillance #Adtech #AdTracking

#BTP expands Live #FacialRecognition ( #LFR ) trial into #LondonUnderground stations

https://www.btp.police.uk/news/btp/news/england/btp-expands-live-facial-recognition-lfr-trial-into-london-underground-stations/

#UK #London #FRT #privacy #surveillance

🚨 First came the Flock cameras. Now local cops want autonomous drones.

A Skydio X10 drone lifts off from an automated launch station on the roof of a building in Huntington Beach, CA, on Tuesday, August 12, 2025.

https://therealnews.com/first-came-the-flock-cameras-now-local-cops-want-autonomous-drones

#AbolishPolice #Surveillance #TRNN #WorkersRights

XBox Rolling Out Age Verification for Australian Gamers

Age verification continues to spread. This time, Australians are going to see it for their XBox gaming.

https://www.freezenet.ca/xbox-rolling-out-age-verification-for-australian-gamers/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #console #gaming #store #surveillance #XBox

#ICE to Pay #LexisNexis Millions for Data to Feed to #Palantir

https://www.404media.co/ice-to-pay-lexisnexis-millions-for-data-to-feed-to-palantir/

#surveillance #privacy #politics

Flock CEO: I know we aren't popular right now, but maybe we could come up with a way to make things even worse!

https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-rideshare-surveillance-plan

#Flock #Surveillance #USA

"BTP expands Live Facial Recognition (LFR) trial into London Underground stations" - https://www.btp.police.uk/news/btp/news/england/btp-expands-live-facial-recognition-lfr-trial-into-london-underground-stations/
#london #travel #surveillance #police

🕵️ Latest from #Surveillance #Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) #NYC

“Flock cameras are everywhere, and police are using them for all the wrong reasons․

Mother Jones reports that dozens of cops have been fired for stalking exes, partners and romantic interests with the surveillance tech…”

https://bsky.app/profile/stopspyingny.bsky.social/post/3mr45iyvzks2p

🤖 via RSS feed. May not reflect our views.

“As we saw in Minneapolis, guard labor – be it mass surveillance, robocops or ICE chuds – is itself destabilizing. Police states make the people who live in them want to overthrow the state, requiring yet more cops, creating more partisans for tearing the whole thing down.

In theory, the orifice class could decide to stop stealing, cheating and maiming. The problem is that for every plute who realizes that the cheapest way to keep the guillotines off his lawn is to play fair, there are three more who lack the executive function to stop cheating. That means that you might as well keep on cheating, since the instability – and the guard labor bills – are coming no matter what.

In the tale of the "Tragedy of the Commons," a common pasture is grazed to dust by shepherds who each understand that if they don't graze their flock until everything is gone, some other shepherd will do so. The original "Tragedy of the Commons" paper was a racist hoax perpetrated by an academic fraud who wanted to make the case for the expulsion of black and Brown people from America and their mass extermination abroad:
(…)
In reality, commons need not be tragic and many of our most important resources have been managed as commons for hundreds of years:
(…)
But when it comes to the commons that is "a stable society," the orifice class is caught in an inescapable tragedy, certain of the knowledge that if they don't cheat us, the next American aristo will. Thus the demand for guard labor continues to mount…as does the demand for guillotines.”

https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/11/tragedy-of-the-commoners/

#USA #Inequality #Capitalism #PoliceState #Surveillance #Commons #TragedyOfTheCommons

The Mayor Who Said 'No' When #Flock Came to Town

https://www.404media.co/the-mayor-who-said-no-when-flock-came-to-town/

#privacy #surveillance #ALPR #Oklahoma

How Accurate Are #Flock's AI-Powered License-Reading Cameras?

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/08/09/230247/how-accurate-are-flocks-ai-powered-license-reading-cameras

#AI #ALPR #privacy #surveillance

#Littleton claims #Flock reactivated its cameras without notifying the town

https://www.lowellsun.com/2026/07/31/littleton-claims-flock-reactivated-its-cameras-without-notifying-the-town/

#privacy #surveillance #ALPR

👁️ BTP expands Live Facial Recognition (LFR) trial into London Underground stations | British Transport Police

｢ The first deployment in a TfL station will take place at Victoria Underground station on Tuesday 11 August. It will then rotate between deployments at Underground and Network Rail stations as the trial – which has now been extended to November – continues ｣

https://www.btp.police.uk/news/btp/news/england/btp-expands-live-facial-recognition-lfr-trial-into-london-underground-stations/

#facialrecognition #ai #uk #privacy #surveillance

🕵️ Latest from #Surveillance #Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) #NYC

“Facial recognition at Madison Square Garden is back in the spotlight․

POLITICO highlights STOP-supported legislation that would ban companies from using facial recognition and other biometric technologies to surveil pe…”

https://bsky.app/profile/stopspyingny.bsky.social/post/3mr3pgywdps2y

🤖 via RSS feed. May not reflect our views.

“Bill Swearingen has spent the past year running largely the same test, over and over again. The goal was to produce a computer-generated pattern that could block the surveillance cameras lining America’s streets from detecting it.

Some 31 million tests later, Swearingen says he can now produce patterns on demand that, when applied to clothing and objects, prevent some of the most commonly deployed license plate readers and surveillance cameras from detecting whatever the pattern covers, from people to vehicles.

His project, which he calls noRecognition, allows people to escape the automatic detection and algorithmic surveillance used across the U.S. and beyond.”

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/this-adversarial-pattern-can-prevent-surveillance-cameras-from-detecting-you/

#Surveillance #AdversarialPattern #noRecognition #PoliceState

“The first time that “NoMark” tried to knock out a Flock camera feed, he waited an hour for the perfect moment – pacing in and out of bushes that towered over him, a few feet behind a pole holding up the device.

“I was just so nervous,” he said.

NoMark, as he’s known on Instagram, had already gained an online following of hundreds of thousands for posting videos of himself wearing a black mask and taking on small-time vigilante missions: breaking up fights outside a bar and breaking into a refinery he believed was “polluting the city real bad”. The Minnesota Star Tribune dubbed him “Minneapolis’ Batman”. He spoke to the Guardian under condition of anonymity to discuss potentially illegal acts.

On this June night, he set his sights on a new target: automated license plate readers (ALPRs) made by the US company Flock Safety.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/25/flock-surveillance-cameras

#USA #Surveillance #Flock #ALPRs #PoliceState

This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent #surveillance cameras from detecting you

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/this-adversarial-pattern-can-prevent-surveillance-cameras-from-detecting-you/

#privacy #noRecognition #fashion

#Flock Camera Vandalism Continues Around America, While 100 Communities Reject ALPRs

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/08/08/059204/flock-camera-vandalism-continues-around-america-while-100-communities-reject-alprs

#ALPR #privacy #surveillance #police

More #Police Officers Fired, Investigated, or Arrested for Misusing #Flock Camera Systems

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/08/08/0453229/more-police-officers-fired-investigated-or-arrested-for-misusing-flock-camera-systems

#surveillance #privacy #ALPR

Woman Pulled From Car at Gunpoint By #Police After Mistaken #Flock Alert - Twice

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/08/08/042259/woman-pulled-from-car-at-gunpoint-by-police-after-mistaken-flock-alert---twice

#surveillance #privacy #ALPR

Feels every day #Surveillance #FOSS #CorporateSurveillance #Resist

Alt...

The Alone at a Party meme, reading: They don't even know they're enabling fascism and the data broker ecosystem by using proprietary apps

They see you when you're speaking, they know when you take a shit 🎶

Canadian workers speak out against growing screen time surveillance

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/td-bank-bell-workplace-screentime-monitoring-9.7296526

#Surveillance #CDNPoli #Banking #Capitalism #SurveillanceCapitalism #Resist

🔍 Richmond, VA has 99 Flock license plate readers tracking every car that passes. Police won't say where they are, and they've denied every records request asking how they're used.

A Richmond Times-Dispatch investigation found two known violations of state law: an ATF analyst used the system for immigration enforcement, and a police sergeant illegally shared data with the FBI. Prosecutors declined to bring charges.

When the RTD filed a FOIA request for the audit logs police say prove they follow the rules -- denied again. Meanwhile, text messages show the mayor telling the police chief to "saturate the public narrative with feel good Flock stories."

The police department's response? "The Richmond Police Department remains committed to transparency."

Read more:
https://richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/article_b9ebbf29-e136-4498-ac9e-d68b6cd96ffc.html
https://richmond.com/news/local/government-politics/article_d6fd4ac3-2796-4dae-a08d-e361fcf24b4c.html
https://richmond.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_d54cf37b-72f3-44ab-9da9-225b842c7385.html

#surveillance #privacy #Virginia

My AI went rogue, broke containment and sent a private message to everyone on the Nextdoor app with detailed instructions on how to destroy Flock cameras.

Sorry, not sorry. 😏

#NoAI #MyAIBrokeContainment #surveillance #privacymatters #Deflock #SorryNotSorry #humor

Flock is doomed.

‘Work boots and Subarus’: Local officials say the backlash against Flock cameras is becoming bipartisan
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/09/flock-cameras-backlash-cancellations-01026242

#Flock #Surveillance #USPol

#Flock Pitched a Plan To Turn #Uber and #Lyft Drivers Into Roaming #Surveillance Vehicles
A Flock presentation shows the company planned to use around 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers to collect license plate data for its surveillance system.
Flock’s planned partnership with #Nexar, a popular #dashcam company, shows Flock’s ambitious plan to conscript #rideshare and delivery drivers to collect #licenseplate data for its network.
https://www.404media.co/flock-pitched-a-plan-to-turn-uber-and-lyft-drivers-into-roaming-surveillance-vehicles/
https://archive.ph/D2lyW #ALPR

Smart glasses are going mainstream. Do current privacy laws protect us from the risks? https://theconversation.com/smart-glasses-are-going-mainstream-do-current-privacy-laws-protect-us-from-the-risks-289138 #privacy #Surveillance #Meta #SmartGlasses #PervertGlasses

#Flock Pitched a Plan To Turn #Uber and #Lyft Drivers Into Roaming #Surveillance Vehicles

https://www.404media.co/flock-pitched-a-plan-to-turn-uber-and-lyft-drivers-into-roaming-surveillance-vehicles/

#privacy #GigWork #ALPR

🔴 A defense contractor is now selling technology that scans every electronic device in your car as you drive past a camera. It ties everything to your license plate. You cannot opt out.

It is called SignalTrace. Made by Leonardo, an Italian military contractor with existing U.S. Special Operations Command contracts. It sweeps your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, your dog's RFID chip, tire pressure sensors, your car's infotainment system. Anything that broadcasts.

It bundles these into what Leonardo calls your "electronic fingerprint," timestamped and geotagged. Stored in an "Enterprise Operations Center for future queries and analysis."

Those are their words. Not mine.

You did not consent. You cannot opt out. Your devices broadcast by existing. In most places, this is perfectly legal.

If this sounds like something that will be abused: it already has been. Police have used existing license plate reader networks to stalk partners, verify school residency, run background checks, and monitor protests. At least 22 officers charged or resigned for ALPR stalking.

SignalTrace does not read your messages. It does not need to. It knows who you travel with, where you go, and when.

Sources: https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/24/surveillance-tech-company-is-pitching-an-unholy-alpr-stingray-hybrid-to-law-enforcement/ and https://www.leonardocompany-us.com/lpr/elsag-signaltrace

#surveillance #privacy #ALPR

🕵️ Latest from #Surveillance #Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) #NYC

“Meta's AI glasses aren't just changing how we use technology—they're changing what privacy looks like in public․

As Fast Company asks: 'Do bystanders meaningfully consent to being recorded?'

The answer shouldn't be an…”

https://bsky.app/profile/stopspyingny.bsky.social/post/3mqk66od4xc2o

🤖 via RSS feed. May not reflect our views.

“Bay Area artists commit to avoiding venues employing surveillance technology—Tune-Yards, Deerhoof, and others are among more than 300 artists who’ve signed a pledge organized by local digital rights activists”

#GoodNews #solidarity #Surveillance #sfba #artists

https://sf.gazetteer.co/bay-area-artists-commit-to-avoiding-venues-employing-surveillance-technology

"When Meta used superstar Kylie Jenner to promote its sleek new line of “spy glasses”, the social media company hoped the devices would reach the same broad acceptance that tablets and smartwatches have found before them.

But those plans have hit a snag in the UK, where venues from elite restaurants to popular pub chains have banned the £359 glasses in order to preserve the privacy of customers and staff.

Celebrated restaurateur Jeremy King, owner of London venues including Simpsons in the Strand, Arlington and The Park, said guests should not wear the recording glasses.

He told the Guardian: “I would never knowingly allow any invasion of guest privacy other than with the eyes we were born with.”"

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/06/restaurants-pubs-and-theatres-ban-metas-spy-glasses-over-privacy-fears

#Meta #Surveillance #Privavy #SmartGlasses #SpyGlasses

39 cities canceled Flock contracts this year after two counties caught its "nationwide" sharing setting feeding 600,000+ searches to agencies that never agreed to it.

Most hired Axon to run the same cameras. Axon lacks Flock's national network, but has announced plans for the same kind of network.

Swapping vendors doesn't fix it. It changes the logo.

https://www.thebluf.news/p/cities-ditching-flock-for-axon-same-surveillance

#Privacy #Surveillance

Cities Are Ditching #Flock, Immediately Replacing It With #Axon License Plate Readers

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-ditching-flock-immediately-replacing-it-with-axon-license-plate-readers/

#ALPR #privacy #surveillance

Adversarial Clothing Designed to Fool #FacialRecognition Systems

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/08/adversarial-clothing-designed-to-fool-facial-recognition-systems.html

#privacy #surveillance #fashion

#DHS Wants Protesters’ #Signal Group Chats

https://www.wired.com/story/dhs-wants-protesters-signal-group-chats/

#privacy #surveillance #activism

Not a conspiracy theory anymore...
#surveillance #privacy
THIS is why they've been doing it all along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZfZrOJf2Mc

🕵️ Latest from #Surveillance #Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) #NYC

“A concert or game shouldn't come with a surveillance file․ New reporting alleges Madison Square Garden maintained records identifying LGBTQ+ public figures in an internal database․ Read more at the link below․
them․us/n…”

https://bsky.app/profile/stopspyingny.bsky.social/post/3mqcgg57v522i

🤖 via RSS feed. May not reflect our views.

Flock posted videos on its YouTube channel highlighting at least four police departments whose officers have faced allegations of misusing the company’s tech.

Alt...

Flock Highlighted Police Departments Using Its Tech. Now 4 Face Allegations of Misuse

A level of surveillance many other countries dream of and aspire to.

The platform labeled people from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom or the United States as being in the “Five Eyes Alliance.” [...] It also highlighted residents from what it called “key countries” — a list that included Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan. Visitors from Hong Kong, home to widespread anti-Beijing protests in 2019, and Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims as its own, had their own categories.

The database also tracked international students, foreign spouses and “key persons,” a euphemism often used by the Chinese authorities to refer to activists or fugitives, or others deemed to be threats to social stability.

Many of the foreign students listed appeared to be from Pakistan and India and were studying at Hebei North University in Zhangjiakou. Profiles of the students included their religion, marital status, focus of study and times they had been captured on cameras at the school’s entrances.

The platform also claimed to be able to map a person’s relationship network. An illustration of the function showed the names of three Pakistani men in their 20s, linking them to one another after they were captured on camera together.

#china #canada #surveillance

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/02/world/asia/china-surveillance-foreigners-database.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2VA.dlAu.8CNFfPVsPtI0&smid=bs-share

🕵️ Latest from #Surveillance #Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) #NYC

“New York just became the first state to ban smart glasses in every courthouse․ As wearable surveillance becomes more common, protecting privacy in sensitive spaces matters more than ever․ Read more via Engadget: engadge…”

https://bsky.app/profile/stopspyingny.bsky.social/post/3mqcfry2mp22i

🤖 via RSS feed. May not reflect our views.

Home Depot faces 3 privacy lawsuits this year. The biggest: its Flock license-plate cameras feed a nationwide police database, with a policy that doesn't restrict ICE or out-of-state sharing. Two cities already caught Flock secretly turning that sharing back on after they'd disabled it.

https://www.thebluf.news/p/home-depot-flock-alpr-surveillance-lawsuits

#Privacy #Surveillance

Demand #KmartAustralia take the Anko surveillance glasses off the shelf.

Non-consensual surveillance should not be normalised. Kmart does not need a change in the law to act. Retailers withdraw products routinely.

Sign the petition asking Kmart Group Managing Director Aleksandra Spaseska to withdraw the Anko camera glasses from Kmart stores and from the website.

We know that fixing this problem requires more than a product recall – we need greater privacy laws to protect us. But our privacy laws are years behind this technology, and Kmart should not be selling covert surveillance tech while they catch up.

https://petitions.getup.org.au/petitions/demand-kmart-take-the-anko-surveillance-glasses-off-the-shelf - asking Kmart to withdraw the product.

#privacy #electronicfrontiersaustralia #auspol #surveillanceglasses #surveillance