By Staff Reporter |
The company behind the mass surveillance cameras used throughout Arizona was compromised.
The impacted cameras were operated by Flock Safety, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company, as revealed by 404 Media. Their investigative reporting discovered over 70 cameras across the nation, at least, were accessible to the public for viewing and, allegedly, even certain modifications.
404 Media disclosed that they were not able to geolocate every camera they discovered that was left unprotected.
Flock Safety offers cameras with different surveillance capabilities. Their standard cameras provide license plate recognition technology only, but certain lines of their cameras also provide facial recognition technology. Both camera types feed their recorded material into an AI-powered system with a searchable database archived for 30 days at least.
Ethical hackers that partnered with 404 Media reported that a majority of the compromised cameras were equipped with facial recognition technology. These cameras also have the ability to zoom in on faces as well as items surrounding a person, like cell phones.
Following reports on the compromised cameras, Flock Safety issued a statement dismissing concerns about public access and control over the camera feeds.
“This interface does not allow camera control, cloud access, customer account access, or use of search or analytics features. The only content visible was live or recorded video comparable to what can be observed from a public roadway,” said Flock Safety. “No sensitive or confidential information was accessed or accessible. While recent third-party coverage characterized the issue as more extensive, this was an isolated configuration issue and not indicative of a broader or ongoing concern.”
Flock Safety’s characterization of the breach conflicted with what 404 Media’s team found in their investigation. 404 Media claimed their team was able to use Flock Safety feeds to identify and pull personally identifying information on individuals featured on camera.
Flock Safety founder and CEO Garrett Langley told CNN earlier this month that the answer to rising crime and insecurity over public safety was through mass surveillance.
“I think we run a risk today as a country that a generation of people will not believe America works for them because they don’t feel safe, because in some communities you don’t feel safe,” said Langley.
Top funders behind Flock Safety over the years have included Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund (founded by Peter Thiel), Matrix (formerly Matrix Partners, founded by Paul Ferri), Bedrock (founded by Geoff Lewis), and Initialized Capital (founded by Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian).
Around 30 municipalities in Arizona, at least, have Flock’s license plate recognition cameras per the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance database: Apache Junction, Benson, Buckeye, Casa Grande, Coconino County, El Mirage, Eloy, Cottonwood, Gilbert, Goodyear, La Paz County, Litchfield Park, Mohave County, Maricopa County, Oro Valley, Parker, Payson, Peoria, Prescott, Queen Creek, Graham, San Luis, Scottsdale, Somerton, St. Johns, Tolleson, Tucson, Winslow, and Youngtown.
That’s not including the local communities that voluntarily install Flock cameras.
Deflock, a website dedicated to mapping Flock camera locations, lists nearly 1,400 Flock cameras across the state. A majority of the cameras are concentrated around Phoenix, Chandler, and Tucson.
Flagstaff and Sedona did have Flock cameras — around 30 of them. However, mounting privacy concerns from the public pushed both city councils to cancel their contracts this year. In Sedona’s case, the police department contracted with Flock Safety without notifying the city council.
All three public universities have Flock cameras as well.
About 10 other municipalities in the state, at least, have automatic license plate readers from different vendors.
Over 5,000 communities spanning over 4,500 law enforcement agencies across 49 states use Flock cameras.
Flock cameras played a pivotal role in the recent discovery of the Brown University shooter’s identity following a public tip.
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