Across the US, people who disable or destroy Flock automatic license plate reader towers are being celebrated online rather than condemned, with social media posts backing vandals over police who install the surveillance cameras. In one case an Ohio grand jury declined to indict a man caught on video destroying a Flock camera, and public backlash has pushed some Wisconsin towns to drop their Flock contracts after a neighboring city ended its own.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-28
An advocacy campaign is calling on laptop buyers to request refunds for the Microsoft Windows license bundled with their device, arguing that most laptops are sold exclusively with Windows pre-installed even if the buyer intends to use another operating system. The campaign frames this as an unfair practice and provides guidance for consumers to formally request reimbursement from vendors.
en.refund4freedom.org
· 2026-08-28
The Austin suburb's city council voted unanimously on August 25 to terminate its agreement with Flock Safety, cutting off access to its automated license plate reader system. City staff had already begun covering the 28 cameras installed around town earlier that day, ending a relationship with the vendor that dated back to 2020.
mysanantonio.com
· 2026-08-28
Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based startup that sells AI-powered license-plate-reading cameras to police departments, cities, and businesses, has rapidly grown from a niche security vendor into a widely recognized name. That visibility has come largely through controversy, as the company's surveillance technology has drawn public scrutiny and criticism rather than praise.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-08-28
Public records show that Alpharetta, a small Atlanta suburb with about 120 officers, has built a license-plate surveillance network through Flock Safety cameras that now exchanges data with over 2,000 outside organizations, including colleges, airports, fraud investigators and federal inspectors. In exchange, Alpharetta receives data from more than 1,300 other entities, some of which have already faced scandals over misuse of the same technology. The network has grown sharply in the past year, with outgoing data-sharing partners up 42 percent and incoming partners up 125 percent since June 2025.
wired.com
· 2026-08-28
Public records show former Alpharetta, Georgia patrolman Dustin Bozzo ran 56 unauthorized searches on a fellow officer's license plate—his ex, whom he had been secretly dating in violation of department policy—between March and May, then tracked a second officer's car 29 times after noticing it near hers. He was placed on leave in July and resigned in August as the department opened an internal probe that has since become a criminal investigation.
wired.com
· 2026-08-27
Microsoft is rolling out a feature that lets Xbox owners register their physical game discs so they play as digital titles tied to their account. The program will reportedly cover thousands of games, giving players disc-free access without needing to keep swapping media.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-08-26
Apple and the state of Virginia have launched digital driver's license support in Apple Wallet, letting residents add their license to iPhone and Apple Watch. Users can add it by scanning both sides of their physical license and completing an identity verification process in the Wallet app. Virginia joins 14 other states already offering the feature since Apple first introduced it in 2021.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-08-26
Nebula, the creator-owned streaming platform, has launched Nebula Sans, a custom brand typeface built on Source Sans and designed as a drop-in replacement for Whitney SSm. The font comes in two styles across six weights and is released under the SIL Open Font License, making it free for anyone to download and use. Nebula also released a short documentary detailing the typeface's creation.
nebulasans.com
· 2026-08-26
An Oviedo, Florida man, Evan Meyer, was charged with three felonies after cutting down and smashing what turned out to be a decoy Flock Safety camera. Police had installed the cheap 3D-printed replicas after real license-plate-reading cameras were stolen from a corridor between late July and early August, hoping to lure and catch vandals.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-26
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe found that three Savannah police officers and one community service specialist improperly used the city's Flock automatic license plate reader system to track personal acquaintances and family members. All four were arrested last week, and two other employees had already been fired for similar conduct. Mayor Van Johnson publicly condemned the abuse, calling it a breach of public trust.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-26
A developer released fDeploy, a self-hosted automation tool for deploying software to Windows servers running IIS. It ships in Community, Professional and Academic tiers, all offering unlimited projects, deployment targets and users, with licensing based on server instances rather than usage limits. Community is free for organizations under $1M/€900k in annual revenue, while larger companies pay for Professional under annual or perpetual licensing.
fdeploy.com
· 2026-08-25
GoKawiil