What the Flock?<\/p>\n
Controversial Flock surveillance cameras are nowhere to be found in New York City, but a flock of online users is still squawking about similar \u201cBig Brother\u201d tech on the street.<\/p>\n
A growing nationwide backlash against Flock hit the Big Apple after a recent New York Times report highlighted DeFlock<\/a> \u2014 an app that maps automated license plate readers from the company and other vendors.<\/p>\n Reddit users scoured the app and discovered that Big Apple\u2019s streets are dotted with scores of license plate readers, although not from Flock, used by several government entities.<\/p>\n New York City\u2019s license-plate cameras dot the city, according to the DeFlock app. DeFlock<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no Flock cameras in New York City,\u201d a user noted.<\/p>\n What the app instead revealed was the city\u2019s vast network of license plate readers maintained by the city Department of Transportation, MTA and, most controversially, NYPD.<\/p>\n After the 9\/11 terror attacks, the NYPD steadily built out a massive citywide surveillance network \u2014 first with private-sector security cameras, then with license plate readers.<\/p>\n The department\u2019s expanded Domain Awareness System, described by the NYPD<\/a> as the \u201clargest networks of cameras, license plate readers, and radiological sensors in the world,\u201d rolled out to every police precinct <\/a>in 2013.<\/p>\n But the use of license plate readers drew concerns from New York Civil Liberties Union advocates, who argued more than a decade ago that the cameras come with significant privacy risks.<\/p>\n \u201cWith data over a longer period, with more license plate readers, and more sophisticated analytical tools, automatic license plate readers can tell an intimate story about an innocent New Yorker,\u201d a report from the group stated.<\/p>\n The map stoked controversy over the tech. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n Those decade-old concerns have only expanded in New York and nationwide with the proliferation of Flock.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day, the NYPD funnels license plate reader data into the Domain Awareness System, making New Yorkers\u2019 locations \u2014 like where you work, your doctor\u2019s office, or house of worship \u2014 trackable and searchable for a mind-boggling five years,\u201d said Daniel Schwarz, senior privacy and technology strategist at the NYCLU. <\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: no one is safer or better off when the government or anyone else logs and retains your every move.\u201d<\/p>\n While the city does not contract with Flock, various Long Island communities do \u2014 such as the Village of Hempstead, where roughly 75 cameras scan its 3.7-square-mile area, according to News12<\/a>.<\/p>\n By a seeming quirk, DeFlock doesn\u2019t show any cameras on the Upper West Side. Getty Images<\/p>\n Concerns in the Big Apple blew up in a big way when the crowdsourced DeFlock app showed the ritzy Upper West Side didn\u2019t have a single license plate reader \u2014 a finding that captured the suspicious minds on the \u201cconspiracy\u201d subreddit<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all of the rich and powerful that live there,\u201d a user posted. \u201cRules for thee, not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The actual answer \u2014 as first reported<\/a> by the West Side Rag \u2014 is much less nefarious.<\/p>\n