Comment by ian_d | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ian_d | Hacker News Reader

Mountain View recently turned off their Flock installs after they discovered Flock had enabled data sharing without notice and other agencies were searching through MV data.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/privacy/2026/02/flock-came... > A separate “statewide lookup” feature had also been active on 29 of the city’s 30 cameras since the initial installation, running for 17 straight months until Mountain View found and disabled it on January 5. Through that tool, more than 250 agencies that had never signed any data agreement with Mountain View ran an estimated 600,000 searches over a single year, according to local paper the Mountain View Voice, which first uncovered the issue after filing a public records request.

A different town (Staunton, VA) also turned of their Flock installs after their CEO sent out an email claming:

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/flock-ceo-goes-... > The attacks aren't new. You've been dealing with this for forever, and we've been dealing with this since our founding, from the same activist groups who want to defund the police, weaken public safety, and normalize lawlessness. Now, they're producing YouTube videos with misleading headlines.

San Marcos in central Texas also disabled them recently

Santa Clara County (which includes MV) seems on the precipice of doing the same

Evanston, IL found them to be in violation of state privacy laws and disabled them in Sep.

In Eugene, OR the police tried to disable them in December but Flock turned them back on

Here is a map of upcoming city council meetings in the US where Flock surveillance will be discussed: https://alpr.watch/

The Evanston IL case is worse. They told Flock to deactivate and remove them. The cameras were re-installed and re-activated w/o permission, so the city had to come out and cover them all.

> The company took down 15 of the 18 stationary cameras by Sept. 8, only to reinstall all of them by Tuesday. This was apparently without authorization from city officials, who sent Flock a cease-and-desist order to take them back down. [1]

> Flock CEO Garrett Langley released a statement ... where he writes that “some of our public statements inadvertently provided inaccurate information” about the company’s relationship with federal law enforcement, confirming that there were “limited pilots” with agencies under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security focused on “combatting human trafficking and fentanyl distribution.” [2]

L O fucking L

[1] https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/25/city-covers-up-flo...

[2] https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/08/26/evanston-shuts-dow...

In one city the city covered them with black bags because they were illegal to remove

I'd like to see a database of municipalities that have passed an ordinance banning these systems (including 12 hour drone flyovers like they've been doing in Camden, NJ; drones are fine for specific or exigent circumstances, but flying them systematically is concerning!).

In fact, if anyone knows of municipalities that have done so let me know. I'd like to spend tourist money in those places that I haven't been able to spend in authoritarian-leaning locales as a reward for valuing freedom over suffocation of the constitution for little to no benefit.

Evanston IL canceled their contract and took down the cameras, then Flock went and reinstalled the cameras.

> A statement provided by a Flock Safety spokesperson said, “Flock helps law enforcement, including hundreds of agencies around Illinois, solve crimes and make communities safer, and we are proud of the results we have achieved in partnership with the Evanston PD. We continue to be optimistic that we will have the opportunity to have a constructive dialogue to address the City’s concerns, and resume our successful partnership making Evanston safer.” [0]

Hows that for taking no as an answer? My god, we are in big trouble if this is going to be a regular thing. IMHO we need to shut this country down.

[0]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/29/after-evanston-fir...

Cambridge, MA.

After the city deactivated the existing cameras, Flock got caught putting more up. The city terminated their contract with Flock for material breach.

The groups and companies that break the law and norms as usual part of business always complain about "lawlessness" when someone opposes them

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