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Flock surveillance cameras become midterm campaign target as voters balk at tech companies’ power

Prescott eNews · · International · Surveillance & Civil Liberties

Flock Safety's automated license plate reader cameras have become a political issue in midterm campaigns, with candidates picking up on voter unease about the growing reach of private surveillance technology in public spaces.

Why this matters: Flock cameras are already in thousands of neighborhoods, scanning every passing car and logging the data. Most residents never voted on that. Now it is showing up in actual elections, which means people are starting to connect the dots between tech company products and who really controls the infrastructure watching their streets. That is a shift worth watching. The real accountability question is simple: a private company is building a nationwide surveillance network, and local governments are paying for it. Who sets the rules on how long that data is kept, who can see it, and when it gets deleted?

Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy

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