Flock Safety installs cameras after city suspension; outsources training to overseas workers
Flock Safety installed license plate reader cameras in Cambridge after the city suspended them due to privacy concerns, leading to contract termination. An accidental data leak also revealed that Flock outsources AI training to low-wage workers in the Philippines who annotate footage from American streets, raising concerns about data security and overseas access to sensitive surveillance information.
What happened
In October, Cambridge City Council suspended Flock Safety's license plate reader cameras due to privacy concerns, particularly about data being shared with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Despite the suspension order, Flock Safety installed two new cameras in late November without the city's knowledge, citing an outstanding work order that should have been cancelled.
An accidental data leak exposed that Flock Safety outsources AI training to low-wage gig workers in the Philippines who annotate video footage from American streets, raising concerns about data security and overseas access to sensitive information.
Reported impact
Cambridge terminated its contract with Flock Safety due to what the city characterized as a 'material breach of trust and the agreement.'
Privacy advocates expressed concern that data containing American vehicle and license plate information, sometimes including pedestrians, is being processed by foreign workers with minimal wage protections.
Index analysis
Flock's centralized database of 90,000 cameras nationwide can be searched by federal and local law enforcement agencies. According to an ACLU analysis of network audit logs, of 2.6 million searches, only about 1,500 explicitly mentioned immigration-related terms, though vague justifications like 'investigation' could also facilitate immigration enforcement searches.
The company's outsourcing of data annotation to Philippine workers without apparent data governance safeguards demonstrates a gap between AI deployment in sensitive law enforcement contexts and worker protections in the global supply chain.
Governance controls
Flock claims its database requires law enforcement agencies to provide justification for searches, which is logged in network audits, and excludes data from sanctuary municipalities when immigration-related terms are used.
The Cambridge City Council's decision to suspend and then terminate the contract reflects municipal efforts to assert oversight, though the installation after suspension indicates inadequate contractual enforcement mechanisms.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.