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Hackers Stole Flock’s Camera Software, Revealing How the Company Tracks Cars and People
404 Media • • technology
Key Points:
- Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety camera, copied nearly all data stored on it, and revealed how the cameras track vehicles and people, including capturing millions of images and detecting pedestrians explicitly.
- The breach exposed that the camera stores an encryption key locally, which allowed hackers to unlock videos and images, challenging Flock's claim that footage remains secure and briefly stored only after transmission to the cloud.
- Flock’s national network allows thousands of agencies nationwide to access camera data, raising privacy concerns, especially after reports of law enforcement sharing data with ICE and using it for sensitive investigations.
- Analysis showed the camera takes rapid bursts of photos of passing vehicles but does not perform license plate reading or vehicle identification on-device; these processes occur on Flock’s servers.
- Flock denies using face recognition technology and emphasizes its security policies, while critics worry that acts of sabotage against cameras may reinforce law enforcement's justification for surveillance tools.
