Security News > 2021 > March > National Surveillance Camera Rollout Roils Privacy Activists

While controversy over the potential overreach of neighborhood and law-enforcement video surveillance has focused mainly on Ring, an Atlanta-based startup has quietly rolled out its own network of smart surveillance cameras across the country that is again raising questions of privacy and the ire of some advocating it, according to a published report.

Langley so far has not responded to an email sent Thursday by Threatpost requesting comments and details about Flock TALON and the technology's privacy protections.

Flock also is aware of the privacy issues that its technology can raise, claiming that it's the "Only ALPR crime-solving camera system with privacy protection measures built in."

Digital privacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized ALPR technology and companies like Flock, claiming "There is no real evidence that ALPRs reduce crime," and that their technology is purely another surveillance tool, plain and simple.

"ALPR vendors, like other surveillance salespeople, operate on the assumption that surveillance will reduce crime by either making would-be criminals aware of the surveillance in hopes it will be a deterrent, or by using the technology to secure convictions of people that have allegedly committed crimes in the neighborhood," according to a blog post by Jason Kelley and Matthew Guariglia written last September.

Still, the controversy over using ubiquitous surveillance and smart-camera technology to help solve crime is likely to continue to have pushback from privacy advocates, even if those behind the technology have good intentions.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/camera-roll-out-roils-privacy-activists/164502/