Flock safety called its critics ‘terrorists.’ Now it wants to be your privacy savior

Surveillance tech vendor Flock Safety is making some changes to both its policies and messaging following months of backlash over its products — namely, its automatic license plate readers, commonly referred to as ALPRs.

Often presented by proponents as an indispensable crime-fighting tool for 21st-century policing, the devices have long been criticized by groups such as the Institute for Justice and Electronic Frontier Foundation for creating a surveillance network that enables the government to indiscriminately track the movements of drivers over time without a warrant.