- Flock abandons plans for a ‘human distress detection’ feature
- It had previously been implemented as a small test.
- Consumer groups say it’s evidence of “mission creep” by the company.
It’s fair to say that Flock isn’t the most popular tech company at the moment, with major consumer concerns around surveillance and privacy regarding its widespread license plate cameras, but at least it has now removed one of its most controversial features.
That feature is “human distress detection,” which was recently tested on a small scale and used Flock’s network of urban acoustic detectors to listen for sounds of human screams and panic. If those sounds were detected, police would be alerted, which could give authorities a head start in responding to an incident.
After “careful consideration and consultation with the community,” Flock says it is now removing the human detection element. The acoustic detectors remain in place and continue to listen for sounds, including gunshots and vehicle crashes, but the “human distress” element experiment has ended and will not be rolled out more widely.
In a detailed defense of its technology, Flock says that “the system cannot understand speech, analyze language, or identify voices.” Audio is not recorded by default, but a continuous five-second window is processed continuously. If a matching event is detected, the clip is processed, encrypted, and stored.
A ‘victory’ for activists
Consumer rights and privacy groups welcome the decision. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has declared the move a “victory” for activists, although the organization still has many concerns around the existing shoot-and-crash technology that the microphones are still configured for.
“The gunshot-detecting microphones that are eventually used to listen for screams are exactly the type of mission we’ve seen happen with other pieces of surveillance technology, including Flock’s license plate readers,” says Matthew Guariglia, senior political analyst at the EFF.
The online reaction to the feature’s removal is less triumphant: most commenters simply don’t believe Flock is going to limit these acoustic detectors the way it says it will. “I don’t believe that for a second,” is a Reddit response typical of the general sentiment, amid continued privacy concerns.
What doesn’t help Flock’s reputation is that its representatives have apparently lied before about what its devices can do and what data is collected, making it difficult for citizens to fully trust its stances on privacy, even if this latest move seems like a victory.
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