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a little more
Flock Group Inc., doing business as '''Flock Safety''', is a [[mass surveillance]] corporation, which was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd. They utilize [[Artificial Intelligence]]/machine learning, computer vision, and other modern technologies to identify and locate/track people and vehicles. They also offer gunshot locator (listening) devices, which in 2025, also began analyzing human voice.<ref name="eff microphones">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices</ref><ref name="sos listening">https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-listening-city/</ref>
Flock Group Inc., doing business as '''Flock Safety''', is a [[mass surveillance]] corporation, which was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley, Matt Feury, and Paige Todd. They utilize [[Artificial Intelligence]]/machine learning, computer vision, and other modern technologies to identify and locate/track people and vehicles. They also offer autonomous drones, gunshot locator (listening) devices, which in 2025, also began analyzing human voice.<ref name="eff microphones">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flocks-gunshot-detection-microphones-will-start-listening-human-voices</ref><ref name="sos listening">https://stateofsurveillance.org/news/flock-listening-city/</ref>
==Systems==
==Systems==
===Autonomous Drones===
===Autonomous Drones===
Flock also leases drones, which can be automatically deployed by Flock's AI, to go provide surveillance over an area, or follow a person of interest. With an advertised speed of 60mph, and the ability to scan license plates from 2000 miles away, these enable the customer to identify and track anyone within range, where other surveillance equipment is not already installed. <ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/flock-dfr</ref><ref>https://www.cnet.com/home/security/when-flock-comes-to-town-why-cities-are-axing-the-controversial-surveillance-technology/</ref>
Flock also leases drones, which can be automatically deployed by Flock's AI, to go provide surveillance over an area, or follow a person of interest. With an advertised speed of 60mph, and the ability to scan license plates from 2000 feet away, these enable the customer to identify and track anyone within range, where other surveillance equipment is not already installed. <ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/flock-dfr</ref><ref>https://www.cnet.com/home/security/when-flock-comes-to-town-why-cities-are-axing-the-controversial-surveillance-technology/</ref>
"The Flock Safety drone, specifically, are flying LPR cameras as well” -Rahul Sidhu, Vice President of Aviation at Flock Safety<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/drone-sky-could-be-tracking-your-car</ref>
"The Flock Safety drone, specifically, are flying LPR cameras as well" -Rahul Sidhu, Vice President of Aviation at Flock Safety<ref>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/drone-sky-could-be-tracking-your-car</ref>
==Legal and Privacy issues==
==Legal and Privacy issues==
One defense of Flock's usage, is that each customer can purportedly only access the data their own leased Flock equipment collects. However, each customer has the option to share their data with other customers, which quickly spreads the access to each customer's data, across the country. As of 2026, we also now have federal agencies such as the FBI, attempting to access nationwide tracing data from Flock and/or competitors.<ref>https://govtribe.com/file/government-file/attachment-1-lpr-idiq-statement-of-work-dot-pdf</ref><ref>https://san.com/cc/ice-illegally-gains-informal-access-to-nationwide-license-plate-camera-network/</ref>
One defense of Flock's usage, is that each customer can purportedly only access the data their own leased Flock equipment collects. However, each customer has the option to share their data with other customers, which quickly spreads the access to each customer's data, across the country. As of 2026, we also now have federal agencies such as the FBI, attempting to access nationwide tracing data from Flock and/or competitors.<ref>https://govtribe.com/file/government-file/attachment-1-lpr-idiq-statement-of-work-dot-pdf</ref><ref>https://san.com/cc/ice-illegally-gains-informal-access-to-nationwide-license-plate-camera-network/</ref>
Surveillance systems also have a societal effect. It has been proven that law-abiding people, will still change their behaviors when they know they are being surveilled. This is not crime prevention, but rather a so-called "chilling affect." When people know their voice is beingf recorded and analyzed (by things like Flock Raven), they will avoid talking about certain things. When they know their movements are being tracked, they will avoid going certain places. There are other examples of this as well, but this overall influence is known as the "Hawthorne effect."<ref>https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/hawthorne-effect</ref><ref>https://www.simplypsychology.org/hawthorne-effect.html</ref>
==References==
==References==