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25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough

Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn argue post-9/11 mass surveillance expanded far beyond its counterterrorism justification and should be reevaluated for costs to rights.

An essay by Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn (originally in Lawfare) traces the post-9/11 shift from targeted surveillance to mass collection of telephone and internet metadata. It cites the Section 215 bulk phone records program, struck down in interpretation by the Second Circuit in 2015 and curtailed by the USA Freedom Act, and the NSA's Upstream program under Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which ended content searches in 2017. The authors note mass surveillance now serves routine law enforcement and immigration actions, with FBI Director Kash Patel confirming purchases of Americans' data from brokers, and private systems like Flock license plate readers and venue facial recognition feeding government access.

Schneier on Security · 1d agoPolicy & legal

Hackers reveal how Flock cameras really track cars and people

Hackers tore down a Flock Safety camera, dumped its storage, recovered an encryption key, and revealed its software detects people as well as vehicles.

Hackers from a collective calling itself stegan0gram removed a Flock Safety camera from service, made a near-complete copy of its storage, and recovered an encryption key stored on the device that unlocked thousands of vehicle-detection videos, sharing the files with 404 Media, WIRED, and Distributed Denial of Secrets. Analysis of about 21 days of logs shows more than a million images, roughly 28 photos per passing vehicle, and Flock-built apps that detect people, bicycles, and even bumper stickers, while plate inference happens on Flock's servers. Flock had previously downplayed early-2025 root-access research by Jon Gaines, and records from Alpharetta, Georgia were searchable by over 2,000 agencies via Flock's national network.

Ars Technica · Security · 58m agoData breach in the wild 4 sources

Flock Once Touted Its Cameras as ‘Made in the USA.’ Now It’s Not So Clear

WIRED investigation finds Flock Safety stopped marketing cameras as Made in USA, with imports from Taiwan's Primax Electronics facilities in Thailand.

WIRED reviewed US import records showing Flock has increasingly imported commodity cameras and radar components from Primax Electronics in Thailand. Earlier marketing claimed cameras were manufactured in the United States, with assembly in Atlanta and later contract facilities run by East West Manufacturing and Plexus. Flock says its products are National Defense Authorization Act compliant amid activist backlash, local government pullouts, and possible congressional legislation on license plate readers.

WIRED · Security · 1h agoIndustry

Hackers publish thousands of drivers’ data after breaching Florida motor vehicle database

ShinyHunters published hundreds of thousands of records from Florida's DAVID vehicle database, including SSNs and passports, after an unpaid ransom demand.

The ShinyHunters group published hundreds of thousands of files from Florida's DAVID motor vehicle database on its leak site, saying the victim did not pay a ransom. Stolen records include vehicle ownership certificates with names, addresses, and VINs, plus a smaller number of Social Security numbers, non-US passports, and immigration documents. FLHSMV confirmed the breach, which followed theft of a police officer's credentials stored on a personal device. It comes the same month as the IDScan hack exposing over 150 million driver's license images.

TechCrunch · Security · 16h agoData breach 3 sources

Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’

EFF analysis found police searched Flock's 19,000-camera ALPR network using joke reasons like 'LMAO' and 'idk,' exposing routine warrantless surveillance abuse.

An EFF analysis of Flock audit logs, shared with 404 Media, found officers across dozens of jurisdictions searching over 19,000 cameras in 1,558 cities with justifications like 'LMAO,' 'idk,' and keyboard gibberish between 2023 and late 2025. One Lake County, Indiana sheriff's deputy searched for a license plate across the entire network citing 'LMAO.' After outlets exposed searches targeting ICE detainees, an abortion patient, and protesters, officers were reportedly told to be 'as vague as permissible,' and Flock replaced the free-text reason box with a prepopulated drop-down list, which EFF called a loss for transparency. Departments rarely disciplined offending officers, and EFF concluded agencies cannot oversee themselves.

404 Media · 2d agoPolicy & legal