Flock says its new tool will help identify police abuse, but hasn’t explained how it works

Flock's New Policies and Tools: A Step in the Right Direction or a Public Relations Stunt?

Flock, a surveillance technology startup, has announced a series of new policies and tools aimed at preventing police abuse of its automated license plate camera reader systems. The company's move has been met with a mix of praise and skepticism from privacy experts and critics. While Flock's new policies and tools may be a step in the right direction, the company's lack of transparency about how its 'Audit Assistance' tool works has raised concerns about its effectiveness and potential for abuse.

Flock's new policies and tools include 'Evidence Mode,' which allows customers to retain data for longer periods in 'exceptional cases,' and 'Audit Assistance,' a tool that detects abnormal activity and flags it for administrator review. However, despite its stated importance, Flock has not explained in detail how Audit Assistance actually works. The company has provided some general information about the tool's capabilities, but it remains unclear how it detects abnormal activity and what data it is trained on.

Privacy experts and critics have raised concerns about Flock's lack of transparency about its 'Audit Assistance' tool. The American Civil Liberties Union senior policy counsel Chad Marlow wrote in response to Flock's announcement that 'there is no evidence that the tool works consistently' to address abuse. Marlow also noted that Flock's claims about the effectiveness of its auditing tool are based on anecdotal evidence and not on any concrete data.

Cooper Quintin, a security researcher and senior public interest technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told TechCrunch that it may not even matter whether Audit Assistance works. 'If it does work, law enforcement will figure out ways to get around it,' he said, adding that what matters in the end is whether abusers are caught and held accountable.

Rachel Levinson-Waldman, the director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program, told TechCrunch that making Audit Assistance mandatory is a step in the right direction, and that 'in theory' the tool is 'a great idea.' However, she also said the tool itself 'needs to be audited' because there's not enough information about how it works in practice.

Flock's announcements come after years of reported incidents of its customers repeatedly abusing its technology. Earlier this week, three former Georgia sheriff's deputies were arrested and accused of using Flock cameras to stalk people with whom they had a 'personal relationship at the time,' as the Bibb County Sheriff's Office said in a press release. In this case, the Bibb County sheriff David Davis specifically called out Flock's lack of transparency about its technology and its failure to prevent abuse.

In conclusion, Flock's new policies and tools may be a step in the right direction, but the company's lack of transparency about its 'Audit Assistance' tool has raised concerns about its effectiveness and potential for abuse. As the use of surveillance technology continues to grow, it is essential that companies like Flock prioritize transparency and accountability in their products and services.