A Flock presentation obtained through a public records request shows the surveillance company planned to use dashcams installed in hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft and delivery vehicles to collect license plate data for its network.
404 Media reports that the document provides new detail on Flock’s planned partnership with Nexar, a dashcam company. 404 Media first reported on the intended partnership last August based on information from multiple sources. The presentation shows Flock was actively pitching the partnership, and its plan to use Uber and Lyft drivers, to potential customers around the same time that reporting was published.
Flock told 404 Media in an email that it never executed the partnership with Nexar. But the presentation still lays out the company’s plan to enlist rideshare and delivery drivers to gather license plate data for its surveillance network. It is not clear whether Uber, Lyft or drivers working for those apps would have known their vehicles were being used for this purpose.
“Hundreds of Commercial Business and HOA [home owners associations] in GA [Georgia] are part of the network,” the presentation reads. “Plus Nexar partnership which includes 350k Uber/Lyft and other delivery service devices.” Flock wrote the document to present to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General last August.
Jason Hunyar, a resident of Dunwoody, Georgia, obtained the presentation through a public records request and shared it with 404 Media.
Flock’s automatic license plate reader cameras are typically stationary, mounted on tall poles where they continuously scan the license plate, color, make and model of passing vehicles. The Nexar partnership would have made that data collection mobile. Axon, a law enforcement contractor that also sells license plate readers, sells cameras that can be installed in police cars. Vigilant Solutions and the Digital Recognition Network, two license plate reader companies now owned by Motorola, collect similar data through cameras mounted in vehicles used by repossession agencies.
Nexar sells dashcams that provide front, cabin and rear views and already offers what its website describes as “clear license plate capture with Full HD video.” The company markets its cameras to rideshare drivers as well as commuters, long-distance drivers and casual drivers.
Neither Uber nor Lyft responded to requests for comment from 404 Media. Nexar also did not respond.
Breitbart News recently reported that at least 50 law enforcement officers have been caught using data from Flock license plate cameras to stalk victims:
Marci Bakely, a 50-year-old single mother in Jefferson, Georgia, was one of them. Her ex-boyfriend, Michael Steffman, police chief in nearby Braselton, allegedly tracked her using the Flock license plate reader system. According to audit logs compiled by “Have I Been Flocked,” which aggregates police search records, Steffman searched Bakely’s plate and her teenage daughter’s about 600 times.
The surveillance began while they were dating and continued after the breakup. Bakely installed security cameras and had mechanics check her car for tracking devices, unable to work out how Steffman always knew where she was. When she confronted him, he admitted in a text message that he was using Flock cameras to monitor her.
Read more at 404 Media here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.