What The Flock? License Plate Reader Firm Builds A Controversial Tracking Tool
According to the report, Nova can pull information from commercially available records and data obtained from public records. More concerning is that it can pull information from data breaches too. A notable example was a data breach that affected the Park Mobile app in 2021 (an app that allows customers to make online bookings). The report reveals that Nova can add this leaked information to its database and create a record that associates the data captured by the LPR with the phone number, email address, or, at times, the mailing address of persons affected by the breach. Flock employees expressed dissatisfaction with the company's decision to leverage breached data for its surveillance tool.
In an obvious advert to law enforcement agents, Flock describes Nova as a tool that can help prevent crime. The concern, however, is that considering how Nova operates, it may just be giving law enforcement more surveillance information than they might need, raising serious privacy concerns.
In a statement to 404 Media, Flock said that Nova only offers a centralized platform to access information already available to cops. It also stated that individual users will get to determine the data input they want in Nova.
This is not the first time issues have been raised about Flock's surveillance tool. The company is already fielding a lawsuit that argues that its warrantless surveillance camera is unconstitutional. While the Nova tool is currently available to a limited few, once it becomes generally available, it may not be long before a lawsuit is brought to challenge its use.
