Inside the controversy over Flock, the AI surveillance company whose data is being fed to ICE
Is your data being sold to ICE by the AI tech firm Flock Safety?
- Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based tech firm, provides AI-enabled number plate recognition cameras to over 5,000 communities across 49 US states, promoting its technology as a crime-fighting tool.
- Numerous cities are cancelling or suspending their contracts with Flock Safety after revelations that its data was repeatedly accessed by immigration authorities for Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda.
- Investigations uncovered that federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, gained access to Flock's national lookup network for immigration-related searches, despite the company initially denying federal contracts.
- Privacy advocates and critics, including Senator Ron Wyden, argue that Flock's system creates a massive nationwide surveillance network, logging the movements of all citizens and enabling potential abuses, such as investigating individuals for abortions or protests.
- Although Flock Safety has introduced new rules, including pausing federal pilot programs and allowing customers to block certain searches, many cities and critics remain unconvinced, citing a lack of trust and transparency.