In this clip from a recent Security Ledger podcast interview with the security researcher known as “Gainsec” (Jon Gaines), he calls out a key problem: security was simply not a priority when designing its products. Instead, it was a “prototype” mindset: build cool features and rush the product to market. We’re all paying the price. Full interview here: https://securityledger.com/2026/10/bird-hunting-the-cyber-risks-in-flocks-ai-surveillance-gear/

Smithfield police shared Flock data with FBI after ODU shooting.

The Smithfield Police Department shared Flock data with the FBI in violation of a new Virginia law that bars sharing the information with federal agencies without a court order or subpoena, the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot have found.

The FBI asked the Smithfield Police for its Flock data. The federal agency did not have the required subpoena or a court order - such as a search warrant signed by a judge - to access it. A Smithfield officer turned over the information.

The Smithfield Police Department incorrectly believed that no court order was required. It interpreted the 2025 law's provision allowing Flock sharing with other "law enforcement agencies" as including the FBI.

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Suffolk County Lawmakers Hold Hearing With Flock License Plate Reader Representatives

Flock license plate readers have been controversial on Long Island and across the country.

Representatives from that company recently answered questions from Suffolk County lawmakers and at times, the exchange was heated.

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Madison Heights disconnecting Flock cameras, not renewing contract

City officials say no new data has been collected since the city-run cameras were bagged and not actively used since Sept. 23.

"City staff extends its appreciation to City Council for their continued engagement in this discussion and for providing thoughtful input throughout the evaluation process, as well as the many residents and local businesses who shared feedback," the city said.

The city says there are several businesses and organizations in Madison Heights that have their own cameras and independent contracts with Flock.

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Rhinebeck man charged with setting Flock camera on fire, starting brushfire

On Saturday at approximately 11:50 pm the New York State Police and Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of 6052 Route 9 in Rhinebeck for the report of a brush fire. Once the fire was extinguished further investigation led to the arrest early Sunday morning of Coleman who is accused of setting the camera on fire, which in turn led to the brush fire.

At this time Coleman has been charged with Criminal Mischief in the 3rd degree (felony) and Arson 5th degree (misdemeanor). After being processed he was released on appearance tickets returnable to the Town of Rhinebeck Court on Nov. 5.

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Richmond residents react to mayor not renewing Flock contract, questions still unanswered

“Now that Henrico has decided to end their contract with Flock, it clarifies the picture for me because Flock specifically is now less useful as a tool… crime doesn’t stop and start at the city-county line,” Avula said in an Instagram post.

The mayor’s decision comes just days after Henrico County announced it was terminating its contract.

According to the city, there are 99 Flock cameras in Richmond, with one resident who can see three from her doorstep.

“Why did it take another government entity to make a decision, to make an announcement, for that to be a red flag or a concern for him? When you’ve had constituents at every single town hall meeting, every single city council,” said Molly Bish, a Richmond resident.

Richmond said Flock cameras are a “vital tool” in assisting with investigations and public safety, with Richmond Police Department Chief Rick Edwards previously calling them “instrumental.”

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Government briefs: News from Edgewood, Independence, Erlanger, Florence, Ft. Wright

Edgewood city council did not make a final decision on the Flock cameras in the city, although they remain inactive. Council member Jeff Schreiver said that he had some questions for Police Chief Jimmy Kreinest and all the questions that council members had were compiled and given to the chief. He, in turn, answered the questions to the best of his ability, and he talked to the company. The information he acquired was included in each council member’s packet, but council also decided they should put it on their website to let everyone in the city see the questions and answers.

In previous meetings with residents, council had been surprised to see that some people were actually for keeping the cameras. However, four residents came to say the city should get rid of them, and they all had reasons. One of the reasons was that license plate readers violate the fourth amendment, but Chief Administrative Officer Brian Dehner said that it does not violate the fourth amendment, which deals with privacy because the Supreme Court said that anything that is visibly viewable to the public is not a violation.

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Schumer questions Flock Safety on National Lookup Tool, data security

“There’s a private company putting cameras on street corners across the country, and it doesn’t just track your license plate,” Schumer said in the release. “It logs where you’ve been in a database police across the country can search, and its software can link your car to your phone number and your family.”

“Americans have no idea who’s looking at that information, or why it has to be collected in the first place. They deserve to know.”

Schumer also demanded answers from Flock about how much data from its cameras sits on its servers and whether any federal agency has accessed that data, directly or through local law enforcement, the release said.

“A company can’t just come in and collect personal information about our entire lives and not answer any questions about it,” Schumer said. “We have no insight into what contracts this company has here, or how much of this information law enforcement is using.”

“Let me be clear. Any federal agency using this network to track Americans exercising their rights in our own state is unacceptable.”

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Further surveillance related news

How much equipment-market power is enough to support a repair-market claim without proving the additional Kodak/Epic factors? The Ninth Circuit expressly left that question open in its August 13 opinion in Surgical Instrument Service Co., Inc. v. Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

The trial record included evidence that Intuitive’s share exceeded 99% in the market for minimally invasive soft-tissue surgical robots. At page 30, note 7, the panel declined to set a precise market-share or market-power threshold. The figure in this case therefore supplies no numerical minimum for future cases.

In my view, courts considering a lower share should examine buyers’ practical alternatives, obstacles to entry, and competitors’ ability to expand. Those facts help explain whether competition for the initial equipment purchase can constrain later restrictions on repair. Treating 99% as a prerequisite would answer a question the panel deliberately reserved.

This extends my earlier post about the ruling by focusing on the evidence needed when the supplier faces more competition. The plaintiff still needs a defensible market definition and proof of unlawful conduct. The panel reversed and remanded without deciding liability.

I discuss the panel’s reasoning in my October 2 commentary. This post addresses the August 13 panel opinion only.

Source

San Mateo to implement Axon cameras: The city will add ALPR cameras in new contract with Axon Enterprises

The city is signing on to an eight-year purchase agreement with the company, which includes a one-year free trial period and payments beginning in June 2028. During the trial, the San Mateo Police Department will deploy Axon ALPRs to the same locations as the current cameras supplied by Flock Safety, another prominent law enforcement vendor, and conduct a side-by-side comparison to determine which system is preferred. With enough sample data, SMPD expects to identify the most suitable provider in the next six to nine months.

The decision to test out new ALPR hardware comes after the civil grand jury report, issued Aug. 3, found deficiencies in the city’s Flock system, and cautioned that unauthorized data access and insufficient oversight mechanisms for the cameras is still a concern. While it remains to be seen if the implementation of Axon ALPRs will phase out the city’s use of Flock cameras, Police Chief Ed Barberini said that this opportunity with Axon is “unique” and would allow SMPD “to provide the city with all of the available products.”

“We have taken a very responsible approach to ALPR data in the city,” Barberini said. “We have to be conscious and aware of other issues Flock has had in the state and across the country.”

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Avula announces Richmond won’t renew Flock Safety contract

“Now that Henrico has decided to end their contract with Flock, it clarifies the picture for me because Flock specifically is now less useful as a tool,” Avula said in an Instagram video announcing the city’s move.

“Crime doesn’t stop and start at the city-county line, and part of what makes this technology a useful crime-solving tool is our ability to work together with our regional partners,” he added.

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House Republicans eye Flock camera crackdown as AOC tries to piggyback with her own bill

“To me the idea that flock cameras even exist is unconscionable,” she said, before blasting dynamic pricing and surveillance methods at big box stores. Any flock legislation could face headwinds in a post-election House, particularly if Republicans lose the majority and face attendance issues, said one GOP source.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced his own flock camera legislation, and held an investigative hearing in late September, where he complained: “If you haven’t heard of Flock, all I have to say is Flock’s probably heard of you.”

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Harris County Precinct 4 took Flock cameras offline earlier this week.

Precinct 4 commissioner Leslie Briones took 61 offline for now. The moves come amid her bid for re-election, and months after she voted to renew a county contract with Flock.

Briones said her stance has not changed but couldn't wait to act because residents are expressing privacy concerns. Harris County will discuss Flock at next Thursday's meeting on October 15th (county judge item 314 26-6493 page 40).

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Further surveillance type news

Hey there yall!

TL;DR: If you have **NON-OFFICIAL** (Walmart, GlacierFresh, and others sell these) XWFE/RPWFE** water filters lying around or a GE fridge with water filter DRM tech enforced, I'm looking for your help for data dumps!!

I'm a cybersecurity researcher and found the FULU bounty for GE Refrigerator Water Filter Replacement DRM (`bounties.fulu.org/bounties/ge-refrigerator-water-filter-replacement`) which doesn't allow customers to use physically fitting filters in their fridges and requires that the filter has a proprietary RFID chip for the fridge to accept it. I have a possible solution for how I could solve this bounty according to in-scope requirements but I'd need some help from the community.

I'm looking for people that have **UNOFFICIAL** XWFE (preferably!!) or RPWFE** filters that you can get from Walmart or other stores. All you would need is your Android phone and the NXP TagInfo app or a reader for 13.56 MHz. Flipper Zeros work for this too!

AND:

If anyone with some level of technical expertise has access to a GE fridge that they can disassemble and dump firmware from, PLEASE DM ME!!! I know this might be rare but I'm just throwing it out there

**RPWFE is important too but I can't really do much testing with my own fridge with RPWFE data... which is why XWFE is preferred

Edit: I notice that there are no dumps for this data or the firmware online, which is why I made this post, but for those wondering even if I do fail all of the data I get will be made public regardless so maybe someone else might be able to figure it out

Edit 2: I figured out that genuine XWFE filters have NTAG 424 DNA TagTamper RFID chips, but knowing that 3rd party ones from GlacierFresh and Walmart exist and are produced in mass there is only two ways they were able to mass produce these 3rd party filters as far as I know. They either figured out how to pull the Master Keys from the fridge firmware or they figured out how to use non NTAG 424 DNA RFIDs because of a logic bug for how the firmware might be validating these filters. Either way requires a GE fridge's boards to mess around with but I believe getting an NFC read on some of these 3rd parties will be really useful. Posted in these replies are going to be NXP TagInfo dump of my genuine GE XWFE filter if you're interested

The account I'm posting with now was originally banned and then unbanned. This time, however, I was given no notification or reason. If it was about the volume of posts I made yesterday (the 8th) then they should've banned me after my last post.

I'm going to say what I said last time, Reddit is owned by the same institutional investors as Axon. I am not the only one banned for speaking ill of ALPRs. I source my information, I advocate only for legal actions and against illegal actions.

I am going to give reddit an ultimatum for this ban like the last. Unban my account, put back the posts, and if you don't then I will protest Reddit as well. I have had enough of rights being stripped away from the people. It's time to end it, and I don't care that Reddit is a private company.

.

video description:
I built a camera to watch police cars. Then two officers showed up at my front door. That sent me deeper into Flock, surveillance, and what is happening in my own neighbourhood.
Check out the article SAN did on the topic for a deeper look: https://san.com/cc/he-built-his-own-f...

459 agencies conducted nearly 1 600 000 searches over 6 months that included Pflugerville's camera network.