Axon Sued Over AI-Powered License Plate Reader Network
Axon has been sued in a proposed class action accusing the Taser and police body-camera maker of illegally collecting and storing license plate data on millions of California drivers through its AI-powered surveillance network. Reuters reports the details: - The lawsuit (PDF), filed on Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco by law firms Hausfeld and Gibbs Mura, al … ⌘ Read more

College Students are Pushing Colleges to ‘De-Flock’
Inside Higher Ed reports:

In September, Emory University removed a dozen license plate-reading cameras from its campus in Atlanta and declined to renew its contract with Flock Safety, the company that sells and operates the automatic license plate readers and other mass-surveillance technology. For the coalition of Emory students and employees who had spent months pushing t … ⌘ Read more

Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers
A massive leak has exposed records tied to more than 41,000 DHS employees and contractors, including roughly 10,000 ICE personnel. The data, reportedly taken from DHS’s Okta login system, reveals phone numbers, email and office addresses, reporting relationships, and permission groups associated with undercover operations, wiretapping and surveillance tools. Wired repor … ⌘ Read more

Free Software Foundation Hosts Free ‘Encryptfest’ Event on Sunday
The Free Software Foundation’s “EncryptFest” today covers both encryption and privacy. The free two-hour event runs from 13:00-15:00 Eastern Daylight Time (17:00-19:00 UTC), and includes:

— A discussion on “bulk surveillance, and how encryption protects personal privacy”
— A short video from renowned cryptographer Bruce Schneier.
— A discussio … ⌘ Read more

MapQuest Shows Location of Flock (and Other ALPR) Cameras
MapQuest creates a new layer (that can be toggled on and off), Gizmodo reports:

After promising not to comply with the Trump administration’s “Lake America” gimmick, the platform announced a new “Surveillance Layer” that displays the locations of automated license plate readers (ALPRs), including those from Flock Safety. Per MapQuest, its new tool will identify … ⌘ Read more

Flock CEO Defends Surveillance Tech Amid National Backlash
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Flock’s founder and CEO Garrett Langley doesn’t think the risks of introducing surveillance technology at scale outweigh the rewards. “If we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn’t pause progress,” Langley said, speaking o … ⌘ Read more

Should We Beware of Other License Plate Surveillance Companies Besides Flock?
NPR reports:

Police officers in cities across the U.S. are quick to extol the virtues of real-time crime centers as a game changer that helps them find missing children, monitor large events from the skies and scope out dangerous scenes before putting an officer in harm’s way. Hundreds of police departments have one of th … ⌘ Read more

A College Told Flock to Remove Its Cameras. The Company Refused.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

When Elgin Community College hired Flock Safety to install six surveillance cameras in April 2025, President Peggy Heinrich thought they would “enhance the safety and security of students….” They were supposed to help locate stolen cars and missing people. But Heinrich started to wonder if the cameras were actually … ⌘ Read more

Another Woman Sues Flock For Mistaken Crime Accusation By Police - and for Surveillance
Last week a Florida woman sued Flock over its role in police officer accusing her of a crime she didn’t commit But she’s not the only one suing Flock over mistaken accusations, reports Gizmodo:
.

A Ring video of a Colorado woman being handed a criminal summons for a porch-package theft she did not com … ⌘ Read more

AI Surveillance Startup Flock To Cut Several Hundred Jobs Amid Backlash, Sources Say
Reuters reports:

Flock plans to let go of about 18% of its employees, people with direct knowledge of the plans said on Thursday, as the maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras and license-plate readers faces mounting opposition to its products from communities and lawmakers….

The company has about 1,500 … ⌘ Read more

Texas City Demands $2 Million For Public Records On Flock Usage
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees – including charging tens of thousands or even millions – to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera … ⌘ Read more

San Francisco’s Car Crime Has Plunged. How Much Credit Does Flock Deserve?
Car thefts in San Francisco are down almost 59% for the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same months in 2022, according to analysis of police department statistics by NPR’s Planet Money — and car break-ins are down more than 82%.

“San Francisco’s law enforcement leaders tell us that greater use of surveillance technol … ⌘ Read more

Surveillance Company Tells Cops It Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
404 Media reports:

“We will not add facial recognition to our devices,” Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video. But other, third-party companies are telling cops that they are willing to add facial recognition to data gathered by Flock cameras in order to “close that gap.” A company called VIDIZMO i … ⌘ Read more

California’s Governor Wants Worker Protections from AI. But FSF Thinks Kill Switches are ‘Dangerous Precedent’
The Guardian reports that California governor Gavin Newsom signed laws on Wednesday “aimed at protecting California workers from the threats of artificial intelligence , including potential job losses and workplace surveillance.”
The laws ban employers from usi … ⌘ Read more

US Judge Rules Flock Search Was Mass Surveillance. Bernie Sanders Proposes ‘Ban Flock Act’
Flock’s cameras offer “indiscriminate mass surveillance,” a U.S. federal judge wrote in a ruling Thursday, as does any system with “continuously updated” location histories for all the vehicles filmed by automated license plate-reading cameras.

The judge’s ruling included italics for emphasis when … ⌘ Read more

Cops Searched Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ And ‘Asdfg’
404 Media reports:

Last summer, a cop with the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department used Flock’s surveillance search engine to look for a license plate across more than 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities and towns. The cop’s stated reason for the search, according to a record of Flock’s system, was “LMAO. … ⌘ Read more

Instead of Fighting AI, Some Teachers Work It Into Their Lessons
Last year the writing program at the University of Baltimore used an app that tracks students while they’re writing in Google Docs, offering teachers a video playing back revisions “with a scoreboard of all the edits, pastes and minutes spent on it,” writes the Washington Post. “Is it surveillance? Yes, I think obviously,” says the program’s direc … ⌘ Read more

Flock Offered Webinar Teaching Cops How to Surveil ‘No Kings’ Protesters
Thursday 404 Media reported that Flock taught America’s cops “how they could surveil the No Kings protests” against President Trump (as well as “small parades”) in a webinar last year that described “using a mix of Flock’s technology and law enforcement’s own databases.”

In the webinar, Flock’s director of market management Caity Pe … ⌘ Read more

As Backlash Grows, More Americans Now Oppose Automated Police License Plate Readers Than Support
A new survey on police license plate cameras found that “more Americans oppose these surveillance cameras than support them,” reports TechCrunch:

According to a new YouGov survey of 20,000 people across the U.S. that was shared exclusively with The Washington Post, 46% of respondents … ⌘ Read more

Man Dressed As Darth Vader Defends Flock Cameras to San Diego City Council
A man dressed as Darth Vader used a Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting in San Diego to mock the city’s use of Flock surveillance cameras, sarcastically arguing that the technology would help the “emperor” track “rebel scum” and find Luke Skywalker. “This is what the emperor needs. This technology will hel … ⌘ Read more

OpenAI Ditches Recall-Style Screenshot Surveillance For Friendly Keylogging
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: If you want to record whatever you do on a computer, send those records to OpenAI, use more ChatGPT tokens, and increase your vulnerability to prompt injection, then OpenAI has something for you. It’s called Computer History, an opt-in way to record your computer interact … ⌘ Read more

Bipartisan ‘Uprising’ Against Flock Cameras: a Larger Fight Against Big Tech and Surveillance?
Politico notes that over 20 local jurisdictions in America “either stopped using Flock cameras or began the process of doing so in July, according to a tracker maintained by DeFlock, an activist group that has been mapping the company. It’s the highest amount in a single month since they began … ⌘ Read more

Trump Administration Enlists Private Companies To Hack Foreign Cybercrime Groups
The Trump administration today unveiled a new program that will allow vetted U.S. companies to conduct cyber surveillance and offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations. A presidential memorandum signed August 12 directs the National Coordination Center to establish and manage t … ⌘ Read more

Flock Cameras Are Being Destroyed Across the US
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Surveillance cameras owned by Flock Safety have been cut down with electric saws in New York State, vandalized with paint in Oakland, California, and rammed with a truck in Idaho. Flock claims its services fight crime, but law enforcement agencies also use their services to track vehicles based on license plate numbers and reconstruct the thei … ⌘ Read more

eBay Reaches $56 Million Settlement With E-Commerce Newsletter Writers It Terrorized In 2019
eBay and several former executives have agreed to pay $56 million to Ina and David Steiner, the newsletter writers targeted in a 2019 corporate harassment campaign that involved threats, surveillance attempts, and deliveries of live insects and other disturbing items. The settlement closes th … ⌘ Read more

US Agency Cancels Contract For Warrantless Tracking of Mobile Devices
America’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has “canceled its contract for a surveillance tool that enables warrantless tracking of mobile devices,” reports the Associated Press.

They note the move comes “after lawmakers, a prosecutor and a judge raised concerns about the legality of the tool in criminal investigation … ⌘ Read more

US Congress Lets ‘Warrantless Wiretap’ Law FISA Lapse
It’s the U.S. law that allows wiretaps without a warrant for surveilling foreign targets. And the U.S. Congress just let it lapse. Sort of. NPR reports:

Each year, the provision is used by American intelligence agencies to collect the electronic communications of hundreds of thousands of foreigners located outside of the United States. The government says that more than … ⌘ Read more

Trois surveillants de prison et un infirmier condamnés après la mort d’un détenu en grève de la faim
En août 2023, Yacine T. est mort à la prison de Béziers (Hérault). La dégradation brutale de son état de santé n’avait pas été comprise. Le tribunal a prononcé des condamnations pour homicide involontaire et non-assistance à personne en danger. La médecin qui avait examiné le détenu a été relaxée. ⌘ Read more

Why You Might Already Own SpaceX Shares, Siri’s AI Makeover, and Knicks Owner’s Surveillance Machine
Today on Uncanny Valley, we take an early look at the SpaceX IPO and why you might find yourself among the investors without even realizing it. ⌘ Read more

Apple, get the hell out of my uterus
Please, we don’t need the tech bros’ surveillance of our most intimate bodily functions. ⌘ Read more

Signal Alums Reveal ‘Encrypted Spaces,’ a System for Making Private Collaboration Apps
The new open-source project could serve as the basis for a future of apps with features as complex as Slack, Discord, or Google Docs—but with added protection against surveillance. ⌘ Read more

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over ‘Unqualified’ Spy-Chief Pick
US lawmakers are alarmed that Bill Pulte, a housing official with no intelligence experience, is poised to take charge of one of the government’s most powerful surveillance tools. ⌘ Read more

Soccer Fans, You’re Being Watched
From anti-drone tech to face recognition, 2026 World Cup stadiums in the US, Canada, and Mexico are subjecting fans to an array of surveillance tech. Here’s what you need to know. ⌘ Read more

Mapping Every Flock License Plate Reader Near US World Cup Stadiums
Most US World Cup stadiums are surrounded by surveillance cameras. Want to know if you’re being watched on your way to a match? These maps will help you. ⌘ Read more

Catastrophe and drama collide in this lavish production
John Cranko’s 1962 Romeo and Juliet is most admired – among those who do admire it – for the ensemble grandeur of its large set-piece scenes. ⌘ Read more

Surveillance Is Not Safety: A statement on the UK’s latest threat to privacy [pdf]
Article URL: https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/2026-06-08-uk-surveillance-is-not-safety.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48450646

Points: 4

# Comments: 0 ⌘ Read more

En Chine, comment vit-on dans un monde épié à chaque instant
Comment vit-on avec la surveillance numérique, quand celle-ci est (presque) totale? La chercheuse Ariane Ollier-Malaterre déplace la focale du contrôle mis en place par le gouvernement chinois aux raisons hétérogènes qui facilitent son acceptation. Entretien. ⌘ Read more

Vertiges de l’identification biométrique: le cas de l’Inde à la loupe
Un livre sidérant et inquiétant du sociologue Nicolas Belorgey montre comment l’identification biométrique de la population indienne, censée initialement pallier les lacunes de l’administration, est devenue un outil de surveillance, voire de répression. Entretien. ⌘ Read more

Russian Spy Agency Says Foreign Spies Turned Officials’ Smartphones Into Surveillance Devices
Russia’s FSB claims foreign intelligence services compromised smartphones belonging to senior Russian officials, allegedly turning them into surveillance devices capable of stealing data, recording conversations, and activating microphones or cameras. “This software is used to steal existing … ⌘ Read more

**Présidentielle en Colombie: un premier tour sous haute surveillance **
Quelque 41 millions de Colombiens doivent désigner le successeur de Gustavo Petro, le premier président de gauche du pays. Dans un contexte de recrudescence des violences, l’armée a été déployée pour permettre au scrutin de se dérouler dans le calme. ⌘ Read more

Pentagon Says US Military Personnel Targeted Using Commercial Location Data
U.S. forces deployed to war zones “have been targeted using commercially available location data,” reports Reuters, citing “reports fielded by military officials.”

Reuters calls it “an illustration of how the global surveillance economy is shaping the battlefield.”

In a letter shared with Reuters by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, … ⌘ Read more

Cybercrime Crew Claims It Hacked Mike Lindell’s MyPillow
Plus: A ransomware group is now stealing data in person, BusPatrol wants to hand its license plate surveillance data to the cops, and more. ⌘ Read more

Amazon, Facebook, FBI have access to a private intelligence-sharing network
Article URL: https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48226588

Points: 41

# Comments: 4 ⌘ Read more

The US Is Betting On AI To Catch Insider Trading In Prediction Markets
The CFTC says it is ramping up efforts to catch insider trading and market manipulation in prediction markets, using AI tools, blockchain tracing, and other surveillance systems to flag suspicious bets. It’s also monitoring activity by U.S. traders accessing offshore platforms like Polymarket through VPNs. Wired reports: [T]he Commod … ⌘ Read more

Chez Orange, le déploiement massif de l’IA fait resurgir le spectre de la souffrance au travail
L’entreprise déploie massivement des outils d’intelligence artificielle. Traumatisés par la vague de suicides des années 2000, salariés et syndicats dénoncent la surveillance croissante, l’accélération des cadences et les risques pour la santé des professionnels de l’entreprise. ⌘ Read more

An Engineer’s Post Protesting Laptop Surveillance Is Going Viral Inside Meta
Meta employees in the US and UK are organizing against corporate software that tracks workers’ keystrokes and mouse activity. ⌘ Read more

Hantavirus: les croisiéristes rapatriés sous étroite surveillance, les autorités restent confiantes
Les passagers du bateau où s’est déclaré le virus sont en cours de rapatriement vers leurs différents pays d’origine en suivant des procédures d’isolement. Si les personnes contaminées peuvent présenter de graves symptômes, les scientifiques s’accordent pour dire que le virus est peu transmissible. ⌘ Read more

Master Poulet: «Arrêtons de surveiller l’assiette des pauvres, réfléchissons à nos pratiques alimentaires»
L’affaire du poulet rôti de Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, conflit local devenu affaire nationale, a pris une ampleur démesurée. Mais elle soulève des questions majeures sur la gentrification urbaine et l’accès à une nourriture saine pour touts et toutes. ⌘ Read more

Google and Pentagon Reportedly Agree On Deal For ‘Any Lawful’ Use of AI
Google has reportedly signed a classified agreement allowing the Pentagon to use its AI models for “any lawful government purpose.” While the deal is said to discourage domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons without human oversight, it apparently does not give Google the power to block how the government actually uses its m … ⌘ Read more

Privacy Advocate Accuses US Government of Investing in AI-Powered Mass Surveillance
The Conversation published this warning from privacy/tech law/electronic surveillance attorney Anne Toomey McKenna (also an affiliated faculty member at Penn State’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences). The U.S. government “is able to purchase Americans’ sensitive data because the information it buy … ⌘ Read more