🚨 If you drive in America, you’re being tracked in a giant dragnet.
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If you drive in America, you’re being tracked in a giant dragnet. Surveillance company "Flock Safety" has quietly deployed over 100,000 automated license plate readers (ALPRs) across 10,000+ US communities.
These aren't just capturing license plates, they're creating complete "vehicle fingerprints" including:
- Bumper stickers
- Luggage racks 🧳
- Dents & scratches
- Timestamped GPS locations
1/6 🧵
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If you drive in America, you’re being tracked in a giant dragnet.
Surveillance company "Flock Safety" has quietly deployed over 100,000 automated license plate readers (ALPRs) across 10,000+ US communities.
These aren't just capturing license plates, they're creating complete "vehicle fingerprints" including:
- Bumper stickers
- Luggage racks 🧳
- Dents & scratches
- Timestamped GPS locations 1/6 🧵
️ This isn't being used for local crime prevention, researchers have found thousands of instances of Flock data being accessed across state lines. 
In multiple states local police granted federal agencies (like ICE) access to Flock data, often sharing the data without express permission from local city councils.Agents have been told to be "as vague as permissible" on paperwork to bypass public records requests.
2/6 🧵
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Flock says that the data is secured and restricted to specific police departments.
Independent researchers have demonstrated that Flock's video feeds are accessible publicly, highlighting how dangerous mass location databases can be when compromised.
Flock recently updated their Terms-of-service quietly removing guarantees that user data wouldn't be sold.
3/6 🧵
️ Surveillance isn't inevitable ️Over 100 communities - including Austin, Denver, Cambridge, and Eugene have already canceled or suspended their Flock contracts.
Communities are fighting back against mass surveillance, and it's working. Automated license plate readers don't lower crime, they just invade public privacy and create a dystopian mass location database.
Removal is the only solution, vendor swapping just perpetuates the same surveillance system.4/6 🧵
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️ This isn't being used for local crime prevention, researchers have found thousands of instances of Flock data being accessed across state lines. In multiple states local police granted federal agencies (like ICE) access to Flock data, often sharing the data without express permission from local city councils.
Agents have been told to be "as vague as permissible" on paperwork to bypass public records requests.
2/6 🧵
Flock says that the data is secured and restricted to specific police departments.Independent researchers have demonstrated that Flock's video feeds are accessible publicly, highlighting how dangerous mass location databases can be when compromised.
Flock recently updated their Terms-of-service quietly removing guarantees that user data wouldn't be sold.
3/6 🧵
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️ Surveillance isn't inevitable ️
Over 100 communities - including Austin, Denver, Cambridge, and Eugene have already canceled or suspended their Flock contracts.
Communities are fighting back against mass surveillance, and it's working. Automated license plate readers don't lower crime, they just invade public privacy and create a dystopian mass location database. Removal is the only solution, vendor swapping just perpetuates the same surveillance system.4/6 🧵
It’s time to take back our streets.
Join the National Week of Action Against ALPRs from August 16–22, 2026.
Find local camera maps, organize city council actions, or download our activism toolkit to start your own group:
- Map & Campaign Info: https://noalprs.com
- Camera Tracker: https://deflock.org
- Activism Toolkit: https://privacyguides.org/activism5/6 🧵
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It’s time to take back our streets.
Join the National Week of Action Against ALPRs from August 16–22, 2026.
Find local camera maps, organize city council actions, or download our activism toolkit to start your own group:
- Map & Campaign Info: https://noalprs.com
- Camera Tracker: https://deflock.org
- Activism Toolkit: https://privacyguides.org/activism5/6 🧵
️ Want to dive deeper?We broke everything down in an easy to digest video, that goes into more detail about the topics in this Mastodon thread.
Check it out and share it around!
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