Reminder: 290 and 67. The 290 represents how many U.S. House of Representatives members it takes to override a presidential veto (all Representatives are up for reelection this year). It takes 67 U.S. Senators to override a presidential veto (35 Senators are up for reelection this year with 22 of those being Republicans—the ones we have to concentrate on the most). These numbers are very important this year at the ballot box because it will take this number of votes to help right this vast ship of a country for all of us, not just the billionaire class.
I hope you’ve heard one of the latest incidents involving the Flock license plate reader cameras. It was used by an overzealous sheriff in Texas. He used a network of over 100,000 license plate camera readers around the country to track a woman who had a self-managed abortion. The sheriff, using these cameras, was able to track her essentially anywhere in the U.S. to see where she was located.
This is not an isolated incident. Other police officers have used these cameras to stalk wives, girlfriends, and lovers, mostly men who believe they should know the whereabouts of whomever they choose and for reasons totally unrelated to solving any crimes. They stalked women because they could, potentially placing these women in danger should the men following them think they were in a place the men didn’t want them to be.
These cameras are supposed to be used to solve crimes. Sadly, there have been multiple instances in which people have been falsely accused, falsely arrested, and even harmed when these cameras, and those using them, got it wrong.
Even though these cameras are only supposed to be used by police and sheriff departments with contracts with Flock, they have reportedly been also used, without authorization, by federal agencies, including ICE, ATF, the Air Force, and Custom and Border agents.
Flock, again the company, that owns these cameras, is developing a product called NOVA. NOVA, if developed as reported, will allow data brokers access to license plate information connecting personal information found in DMV databases. If this ends up being the final product, it means people will be able to look up your license plate, without you knowing, to get your name and address at a minimum, maybe even your picture. Talk about helping a stalker know more about you for a fee.
As a product, Flock cameras are expanding into video and even live feeds!
There is one other issue that is concerning. There seems to be a dispute between Flock and some cities who have contracted with them over who owns the images, the city or Flock. Also, the photos are supposed to be deleted after a certain time, but are they deleted only from the city files or from Flock files. Meaning who owns your personal data and for how long.
Thankfully, some cities are coming to their senses. Cities like Oak Park (IL), Dayton (OH), Sedona (AZ), Austin (TX), and Denver (CO), have disabled or canceled their contracts with Flock over privacy and misuse concerns. Sadly, other cities, such as Albuquerque (NM) and Los Angeles (CA), are either expanding or renewing revised contracts to continue to use the cameras.
Hopefully more cities will come to their senses soon and cancel their contracts as well. We are already subjected to way too many cameras and surveillance as it is.
A case in point, and more fodder for privacy, is it appears airports are now installing cameras that collect your license plate number when using, at least in my recent experience, long-term parking. I was very surprised to find I didn’t need to take a paper ticket when entering the parking lot. Imagine being even more surprised to find, without my permission, the airport took a picture of my plate which I then have to enter into an online portal using a QR code to pay when I leave, which they will then text to me because I also have to enter my cell phone number to proceed. Angrily and sadly, companies and entities have us over a barrel. I can either use their facility when I fly anywhere, inconvenience someone to take me and pick me up from an airport about an hour from my house, or take an Uber (very expensive) or a shuttle (if they run at the times I need). That really is not choice at all, especially when the former system was working just fine for the consumer.
At what point is enough enough?
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