Privacy
EFF audit: police logged 'LOL' and 'idk' to search Flock camera network
An EFF review of Flock Safety logs found officers across the US searched license plate data with reasons like LOL, LMAO and idk, and Lee's Summit now demands MOUs.
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EFF audit finds police searched Flock camera network with reasons like LOL and idk
An EFF analysis of Flock Safety ALPR search logs found officers nationwide querying the database without documented justification, entering reasons such as LOL, LMAO, sexy and idk. A Goshen Police Department officer searched 6,474 ALPR networks covering 82,413 cameras on May 7, 2025, leaving idk in the reason field. More than 30 agencies ran over 6,300 searches marked TBD, including the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Baton Rouge Police Department; Priceville Police Department alone logged 1,954. Some agencies audited searches and said they served legitimate purposes, while others disciplined or counseled officers. Flock Safety now requires a dropdown offense category, but EFF urges courts and legislatures to mandate deletion deadlines and a warrant requirement.
The High Crime Of “LMAO”: How Cops Are Treating Flock Mass Surveillance As A Joke →
Lee’s Summit requires written data-protection pledges before sharing Flock data
Lee’s Summit police now require any law enforcement agency seeking access to its Flock automated license plate reader data to sign a memorandum of understanding stating the data will not be misused. Spokesman Sgt. Chris Depue said the department will no longer share data collected within the city with agencies that cannot guarantee the same level of protection, adding Lee’s Summit may be a pioneer. The requirement began about a week before September 15, 2026, and applies nationwide. Between January 1 and July 1, 2026, nearly 2,700 searches were made of data from the city’s 55 Flock cameras, with 89 local officers querying the system. Parkville and Gardner shut off their Flock cameras, and Weston canceled its contract after resident pushback.
Lee’s Summit restricts Flock data access by law enforcement after criticism from residents →
Meta AI named a Utah creator’s daughters and surfaced birth details from family posts
Utah travel creator Kalie Robins posted a video of herself singing with her daughter in the car. Meta AI suggested the prompt Who’s the child passenger, and when she tapped it, the tool produced what she described as a portfolio covering both daughters, including names, ages, birth details, favorite beaches, books, trails and location clues. Robins had never publicly identified her daughters and has only a few hundred followers. The AI drew on her Facebook page, older Meta posts and content shared by relatives, and kept suggesting more personal questions. Meta said the feature missed the mark and has been fixed. Robins is now asking relatives to delete years of family memories online.
Utah mom posts innocuous car video, says Meta AI named daughters and surfaced birth details →
Audit links major employers to AI tools that set pay from personal data
A first-of-its-kind audit of 500 labor-management AI companies by UC Irvine law professor Veena Dubal and tech strategist Wilneida Negrón found employers in healthcare, customer service, logistics and retail are customers of vendors whose tools enable algorithmic wage surveillance. Published by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth in August 2025, the report named Intuit, Salesforce, Colgate-Palmolive, Amwell and Healthcare Services Group among customers, without claiming all engage in the practice. Colgate-Palmolive and Intuit denied using such tools. A Roosevelt Institute report on 29 gig nurses found platforms including CareRev, Clipboard Health, ShiftKey and ShiftMed adjust shift pay based on worker behavior; ShiftKey denied surveillance wage setting. Colorado’s proposed Prohibit Surveillance Data to Set Prices and Wages Act would ban using intimate data for algorithmic pay.
Obscura VPN launches Circle of Trust with Ente Photos as first member
Obscura VPN has launched the Circle of Trust, a curated network of independent privacy-focused companies, with end-to-end encrypted photo storage app Ente Photos as its first official member. Paid Obscura users get 25% off their first 12 months of Ente Photos, and Ente users receive a reciprocal offer for Obscura’s VPN. Obscura subscribers generate a promo code in the friends section of their account dashboard. Obscura recently launched on Windows and Android and uses a two-party relay architecture with a QUIC-based obfuscation protocol, exiting through an independent Mullvad node. It accepts Bitcoin Lightning and Monero, and has completed its first independent audit.
Obscura VPN’s new ‘Circle of Trust’ rewards users for supporting independent privacy apps →