Judge Says Warrantless Flock Search Violated Driver's Fourth Amendment Rights
The automated license plate reader system is “a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance," says a federal judge.
Surveillance
The SEC Is Watching American Investors' Trades. That's a Privacy Nightmare.
The SEC should not keep a searchable record of Americans’ lawful trades, much less make them pay for it.
A Visit to a Gun Store Shouldn't Put You on a Government List
Gun registry bans might not be enough to protect gun owners from lists built from license-plate data.
Can Nebraska's Dan Osborn Win Over Libertarians?
Dan Osborn discusses breaking with both parties, opposing the Iran war, and how he plans to win over Trump voters.
Cops Used AI Surveillance To Detain an Innocent Texas Driver. His Lawsuit Just Got the Program Struck Down.
AI-powered license plate readers flagged an abnormal driving pattern. Then officers made up reasons to pull him over and interrogated him, and they faked a K-9 alert to justify a nonconsensual search.
Your Right to Privacy Doesn't Disappear When You're in Public
Defenders of Flock-style surveillance systems argue that people “have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public.” They're wrong.
Seattle's 'Surveillance Pricing' Ban Is a Solution Searching for a Problem
The city's ordinance targets price gouging that its own evidence doesn't show—and it could kill discounts that save shoppers money.
AI Facial Recognition Didn't Put This Tennessee Grandma in Jail for 6 Months. Bad Policing Did.
Angela Lipps is suing for $10 million after a Fargo police detective ignored evidence that she was innocent and arrested her anyway.
As Police Misuse Flock Cameras, 2 Senators From Opposite Parties Demand More Oversight
Sens. Raphael Warnock and Katie Britt would seem to have little in common, but they both feel people should have more protection from bad cops with surveillance tech.
Banning Flock Won't Be Enough Without Police Reform
It was Flock that led cops to the wrong woman. It was police who ignored the other evidence and jailed her.
Scan Your Face To Enter Your Dorm? University of Kentucky Installs Facial Recognition Tech Around Campus
The rationale for AI facial scanning—to prevent bad actors from following students into buildings—makes little sense.
Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
SparrowMap uses volunteer cameras to track the police in the same way police track the public. The government considers it a potential threat.
Flock's Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
Gun owners should be paying attention to how police use gunfire microphones in conjunction with license plate cameras.
No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
Cops keep carving out tech exceptions to the Fourth Amendment—and courts are giving them their blessing.
Customs and Border Protection Doesn't Deny Using Facial Recognition To Target Foreign OnlyFans Models
The immigration system has a confusing and opaque approach to foreigners who have done sex work.
The Shaky Evidence That Flock Cameras Reduce Crime Rates
Flock has been promoting a recent study of its cameras' impacts on car theft. But the paper didn't demonstrate a causal effect.
Trump Backs Flock Cameras, Continuing His Long-Time Support for Unchecked Police Power
Trump says he supports the cameras simply because law enforcement does, no matter that they can be misused or abused.
European Cars Are Spying on Their Drivers. The Same Tech Could Be Coming to the U.S.
New cars in the E.U. must now have cameras that track drivers' eyes and flag distractions.
How 9/11 Remade American Immigration
Twenty-five years after the attacks, control and distrust rule the institutions that process foreigners who travel or immigrate to the United States.
Americans Have Learned Virtually No Lessons From 9/11
We still believe in the false promise of trading freedom for safety.
The Feds Are Spying on Your Bank Account
While the Treasury forces money changers to report on suspected immigrants, Homeland Security is having police pull people over for suspicious transactions.
Why Conservative Republicans Are Worried About License Plate Cameras
Recent comments by Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis reflect a bipartisan backlash against warrantless surveillance.
Why Public Schools Lost 1.4 Million Students
Plus: J.D. Vance wants to pay stay-at-home parents, what America got wrong after 9/11, and whether FDA cuts are putting food safety at risk
A New Bill Reflects the Bipartisan Backlash Against Flock-Enabled Mass Surveillance
Criticism from Trump allies and recent survey results show that resistance to widespread deployment of automated license plate readers spans the political spectrum.
A California County Used Drones To Spy on Homes. A Settlement Will Now Require Warrants.
Sonoma County launched the program to find illegal cannabis grows, but it secretly morphed into a wider search for minor building code violations.
Wisconsin Cops Used Flock Over 100 Times To Track a Navy Veteran After He Lawfully Recorded a Traffic Stop
A federal lawsuit claims the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office used the Flock cameras without a legitimate government purpose and in retaliation against the vet for exercising his First Amendment right.
The Belated Backlash Against Flock Cameras
Americans are starting to recognize the dangers of pervasive surveillance by automated license plate readers.
A Tale of Two Tech Revolts
What the simultaneous revolts against Flock and data centers can tell us about the power and risks of populism
Getting Rid of Flock Isn't Enough To Solve America's Surveillance Problem
Civil liberties advocates warn that Americans’ privacy and surveillance concerns won’t be solved without strong legal protections.
This Federal Case Against Minnesota Protesters Is Worth Watching if You Care About Your Civil Liberties
The tentacles of the Trump administration’s domestic spying apparatus are being revealed—and their reach is alarming.
Ron DeSantis Says Flock Cameras Are 'Out of Control,' But Florida's Already Flooded With Surveillance
Florida police departments have been adding drones, facial recognition technology, and license plate readers to their arsenals for years.
Rubio Uses Terrorism Law To Ban Secure Email Service
The State Department doesn’t accuse Autistici/Inventati of doing anything more than providing "untraceable" email accounts. But that’s enough to outlaw it as a terrorist organization.
Surveillance Camera Saboteurs Are Getting Government Officials' Attention
Sometimes direct action is the only way to get politicians to consider civil liberties.
This YouTuber Got Kicked Out of the Flock Convention. So He Ran His Own Surveillance.
Benn Jordan wants the snoopers to be “a little unsettled.”
Post-9/11 Fear Grew the Surveillance State. 25 Years Later, It's Still Growing.
The U.S. government responded in ways that are so integrated into daily life that we no longer recognize them.
America Is Building a Surveillance State Like China's
"If there are Flock cameras in your city, they are tracking, logging and sharing your movements without a warrant," warns the ACLU.
Jason Arday's Downfall, Lindsay Clancy Case, and the Surveillance State
Robby Soave and Christian Britschgi take on press restrictions, the war on drugs, Flock cameras, data centers, dating, punk rock, and why war is still bad, actually.
Border Agents Searched His Phone 5 Times Without a Warrant. He's Asking the Supreme Court To Put a Stop to It.
How many warrantless cellphone searches does it take to change border policy?
Flock Safety's New Privacy Rules Do Little To Ease Concerns Over ALPR Surveillance
The company’s attempts to protect Americans’ privacy “will do nothing to protect innocent people from warrantless mass surveillance,” says an Institute for Justice attorney.
Woke 1.0, House of the Dragon, and the Absurd Politics of Surveillance
Robby Soave and Christian Britschgi break down the absurd political fights about America’s surveillance state before jumping into House of the Dragon.
She Spent 7 Months in Legal Hell After Cops Used Flock Surveillance To Identify the Wrong Car
From wrongful arrests to officers stalking exes, license plate cameras keep exposing police failures.
How Flock Camera Defenders Are Missing the Point
Robby Soave and Amber Duke attack The Free Press' latest attempt to defend Flock cameras.
ICE Spent $525 Million on Surveillance Tech. Some of It Is Infringing on Americans' Freedom of Speech.
New details emerge regarding the Trump administration's surveillance dragnet cracking down on its online critics.
Georgia Has Arrested At Least 20 Officials for Misusing the Flock Surveillance Database
Michael Soyfer, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, calls it “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Kansas Lawsuit: ALPRs Turn a License Plate Into the 'Functional Equivalent' of a 'GPS Tracking Device'
The Kansas Justice Institute argues that Wichita's "warrantless ALPR dragnet surveillance program" violates the state constitution's privacy protections.
Homeland Security Is Spending $1 Billion on 'Autonomous' Border Surveillance Towers
The department plans to triple the number of surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border over the next decade.
Records Show the Government Illegally Surveilled James Comey and Confirm the Absurdity of Its Case Against Him
The Secret Service asserted a nonexistent "emergency" to track Comey's cellphone, and the FBI's evidence falls far short of proving his seashell picture was a crime.
Border Agents Can Lie To Search Your Phone, but Wiping Your Own Data Could Land You in Prison
The government is charging Samuel Tunick for telling them a code that would erase all the data on his phone—after they tried to take it on false pretenses.
