Why it matters: As the use of AI-powered surveillance cameras across the US becomes increasingly controversial, opponents are pushing back in various ways. One group has aggregated public information into a search engine that uncovers Flock user logs. However, the site can only review a fraction of Flock's database.
HaveIBeenFlocked.com allows users to search license plates to see whether authorities or others with access to Flock's camera network have searched for the same plates. The site is part of a growing network of online resources that track and report on what growing numbers of Americans call a surveillance state.
Flock's AI-powered cameras, which automatically enter license plates on passing vehicles into a searchable database, currently operate in approximately 6,000 communities across the US. Authorities can use them to trace vehicles' movements, which they say has helped solve crimes.
However, the technology has come under fire due to concerns about privacy, reliability, and why certain authorities use it. Some communities have seen significant false-positive rates, and dozens of police officers have been caught using the database to track women's movements. Flock cameras can also associate vehicles with users' phones, and the company's biggest investor also invests in a firm that can manipulate camera footage.
Although Have I Been Flocked cannot tell users whether their vehicle has passed under a Flock camera or whether their license plate is in the company's database, it can uncover search queries associated with their license plate. However, if the search engine finds no results, that does not mean that no one has searched a plate because the site does not have access to every Flock query record.
The search engine works because some communities made Flock's search logs public. The site combines records from these public audit logs and public information requests, many of which are from MuckRock, a site that collects Freedom of Information Act requests. Users are also encouraged to submit records from their own FOIA requests to Have I Been Flocked.
Users can even find out exactly who entered each query and whether the search was unusual. While many public records abbreviate the names of officers who search Flock's database, Have I Been Flocked attempts to match the shortened names with public police employment records. Furthermore, the search engine compares searches with patterns showing when each Flock user typically conducts warrantless searches. Have I Been Flocked claims that its search engine does not retain visitors' data.
While many surveillance opponents are simply destroying Flock cameras, other tactics have also emerged. A viral internet meme briefly tricked Google's AI summaries into claiming that Flock cameras contained gold, and a cybersecurity researcher recently demonstrated patterns that prevent the AI network from identifying vehicles and people.
This website lets you check if your license plate was ever searched on Flock's cameras
