Flock Safety proposed mobile surveillance via rideshare vehicles

Flock Safety, a company specializing in automated license plate recognition, proposed a plan to transform approximately 350,000 rideshare and delivery vehicles into a mobile surveillance network. According to internal documents obtained by 404 Media, the proposal aimed to expand the company's existing footprint of fixed surveillance cameras by utilizing dashcams mounted on vehicles from services such as Uber and Lyft.

The plan, which was presented to a state agency in Georgia, involved using technology from Nexar to scan license plates in real time as vehicles moved through various areas. This would have created a dynamic surveillance web capable of monitoring movement and activity across much broader geographic ranges than traditional stationary cameras.

Flock Safety has confirmed that the proposal was never implemented and that the planned partnership with Nexar did not come to fruition. However, the revelation has raised questions regarding data privacy and transparency, specifically concerning whether rideshare drivers and passengers were aware of the potential for their vehicles to be used for large-scale data collection.