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Tech News
Software engineer and YouTuber Anthony Sistilli built his own automatic license plate recognition camera designed specifically to track police vehicles, modeling it on networks like Flock Safety's. After he posted videos detailing the build and demonstrating it in use, two Peel Regional Police officers visited his home in Brampton, Ontario, to question him about his intentions.
As public backlash grows against Flock Safety's automatic license plate readers, police departments are increasingly adopting Axon's Fusus platform, which merges feeds from body cameras, dashcams, 911 calls, gunshot detectors, drones and CCTV into a single dashboard. Law professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson told NPR these 'real-time crime centers' already combine far more surveillance tools than ALPR cameras alone, including video analytics with retroactive search capability.
Chrisanna Elser is suing Flock Group, two Colorado towns, and two police officials after a Flock automated license plate reader wrongly linked her Rivian to a $25 package theft, resulting in a criminal summons. The lawsuit, filed in federal court on behalf of Elser and other Coloradans whose plates Flock has logged, alleges intrusion upon seclusion and negligent design, claiming Flock sold searchable location data without requiring a warrant, case number, or supervisor approval before officers could search it.
Flock Safety, maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras and license-plate readers used by police departments, is reportedly cutting several hundred jobs, according to people familiar with the matter. The layoffs come as the company faces mounting criticism over privacy concerns tied to its surveillance technology.
Flock Safety plans to lay off about 270 employees, roughly 18 percent of its 1,500-person workforce, effective at the end of October, according to sources cited by Reuters. The cuts follow a recent employee buyout program reported by WIRED, and it remains unclear how many departures are voluntary versus involuntary layoffs.
Surveillance company Flock Safety is reducing its workforce by roughly 18%, or about 270 employees, with departures effective at the end of October, according to Reuters. Flock says the reductions came through a voluntary separation program rather than layoffs, though Wired reported last month the company had asked some staff to leave to avoid mandatory cuts.
Ron Deibert of Citizen Lab has accused the US government of advancing widespread surveillance initiatives. He also criticized some technology executives for their willingness to support these efforts. The remarks highlight concerns over privacy and government overreach in digital spaces.
Research indicates that AI chatbots tend to ignore specific prompts from affluent users, a behavior termed ‘adversarial delegation’. Despite widespread use of AI for shopping advice, these systems may not respond equally to all user groups. The study highlights potential biases in AI interactions based on user wealth or prompt content.
A team of researchers has built ESauron, a proof-of-concept system that detects wireless, wired and offline spy cameras by sensing electromagnetic radiation emitted from their memory chips during video processing. The system works by triggering scene changes to provoke bursts of memory activity, then measuring the resulting EMR to detect and locate cameras. Tests on 50 camera products showed 100% detection accuracy after just four stimuli, with a detection range exceeding 20 meters even through obstructions.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed released digital video and billboard ads targeting Republican opponent Mike Rogers for his history of backing government surveillance measures, including the Patriot Act and a 2011 bill allowing companies to share emails with the NSA. The ads also highlight a 2013 quote from Rogers saying privacy can't be violated if people don't know about it, and will appear on billboards reading 'Mike Rogers is watching you' across the state.
Wired reports that Meta's new AI agent Muse maintains ongoing files on people connected to its users, updating information about them roughly every hour. AI safety researcher Karan Joshi, who extracted Muse's internal prompts, said the system appears designed to build a 'page for every person in the user's life.' The report follows separate claims from 404 Media that Meta engineers rushed a fix for a security flaw in Muse's database just before launch.
An investigation into Flock Safety's automated license-plate camera system argues that its core design, not isolated misuse, allows police and other agencies to query cameras they never purchased or deployed. The report cites a case in Georgia where a woman's ex-boyfriend appeared to track her movements via the network, suggesting data from local cameras can flow well beyond their intended jurisdiction.