Flock cameras are receiving public opposition because of concerns about privacy and surveillance. Some urbanists have been skeptical of anti-Flock uproar because some complaints about privacy sound similar to other American motorist complaints against red light, congestion or speed cameras—in which the motorist is really just mad about their poor driving being ticketed.

But there is a major difference between enforcement tech like speed cameras and red-light cameras versus automated license plate readers. Enforcement technology does not track vehicle whereabouts, it just notes the location of a traffic offense and issues a ticket. Records from automated enforcement technology typically remain under the control of a local transportation authority or police department—ideally the former.

Flock cameras are not instant ticketing devices but tracking devices of all plated vehicles—traffic offenders or not—into a database with the flexibility to be shared across jurisdictions, and through all levels of government. Flock cameras and their clients can decode where we’ve been, what cities, what states, what street corners, and what routes with our cars (and undoubtedly soon with other means of transport.) Flock cameras are so effective at identifying patterns of travel that recent news reports have identified police officers stalking their ex-partners with Flock cameras. Obviously, such technological architecture is a tremendous expansion in the surveillance of everyday people.