Changes

===Mercenary surveillance===

===Mercenary surveillance===

In the late 2010s, a new and rapidly growing industry emerged. Private companies began offering mass surveillance services, for a fee, to both government and private entities. While the government could not perform dragnet surveillance, the thinking was that third party companies could do it on the government's behalf. The first successful business in this industry, was [[Flock Safety]]. They began deploying AI powered cameras in large numbers, to track the movements of every single person. Although promising not to be doing facial recognition<ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/trust</ref> Flock's Condor cameras did support searching for people based on identifying characteristics. (Later on, there were also add-on options from separate companies, which would run facial recognition services on Flock camera feeds.)<ref>https://www.biometricupdate.com/202609/vendor-pitches-facial-recognition-layer-for-flock-camera-data</ref><ref>https://www.gadgetreview.com/surveillance-firm-pitches-facial-recognition-add-on-for-flock-cameras</ref> However, Flock's most successful service, was a nationwide surveillance grid composed of roadside [[Automated license plate reader|Automated License Plate Readers]] (ALPRs). Each ALPR would scan every vehicle passing by, recording the license plate, bumper stickers, vehicle make, model, color, customizations, and other matters.<ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/not-all-lprs-are-created-equal</ref><ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/license-plate-readers</ref> This data was collected and analyzed by their central AI to determine each person's movement patterns, current location, who they associate with, and more.

In the late 2010s, a new and rapidly growing industry emerged. Private companies began offering mass surveillance services, for a fee, to both government and private entities. While the US government could not legally perform dragnet surveillance, the thinking was that third party companies could do it on the government's behalf. The first successful business in this industry, was [[Flock Safety]]. They began deploying AI powered cameras in large numbers, to track the movements of every single person. Although promising not to be doing facial recognition,<ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/trust</ref> Flock's Condor cameras did support searching for people based on identifying characteristics. (Later on, there were also add-on options from separate companies, which would run facial recognition services on Flock camera feeds.)<ref>https://www.biometricupdate.com/202609/vendor-pitches-facial-recognition-layer-for-flock-camera-data</ref><ref>https://www.gadgetreview.com/surveillance-firm-pitches-facial-recognition-add-on-for-flock-cameras</ref> However, Flock's most successful service, was a nationwide surveillance grid composed of roadside [[Automated license plate reader|Automated License Plate Readers]] (ALPRs). Each ALPR would scan every vehicle passing by, recording the license plate, bumper stickers, vehicle make, model, color, customizations, and other matters.<ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/not-all-lprs-are-created-equal</ref><ref>https://www.flocksafety.com/products/license-plate-readers</ref> This data was collected and analyzed by their central AI to determine each person's movement patterns, current location, who they associate with, and more.

Seeing how lucrative this mass surveillance industry was becoming, numerous other companies began their own competing services. [[Axon Enterprise|Axon]], [[Leonardo ELSAG|Leonardo]], [[Rekor Systems|Rekor]], [[Genetec]], [[Motorola Solutions]] as well as others, began building their own mass surveillance grids. They lease and/or sell the hardware, and some of those vendors also support facial recognition. Additionally, some other vendors began offering software systems to do the same thing, without custom hardware.

Seeing how lucrative this mass surveillance industry was becoming, numerous other companies began their own competing services. [[Axon Enterprise|Axon]], [[Leonardo ELSAG|Leonardo]], [[Rekor Systems|Rekor]], [[Genetec]], [[Motorola Solutions]] as well as others, began building their own mass surveillance grids. They offered to lease and/or sell their hardware, and some of those vendors also supported facial recognition. Additionally, some other vendors began offering software systems to do the same thing, without custom hardware.

===Data brokers===

===Data brokers===