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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is expanding his investigation into alleged privacy violations from Flock Safety cameras to three additional companies amid concerns about the handling of images and data generated by AI-backed surveillance cameras.
Hawley put Motorola Solutions Inc., Verkada Inc. and Axon Enterprise Inc. on notice in a series of letters that the lawmaker sent on Wednesday.
“On August 26th, I wrote to your competitor Flock Safety to express my concerns regarding the size and pervasiveness of its network and demanding answers as to reports of abuse and costly errors from its technology,” Hawley’s letter to the three companies reads. “However, Flock does not stand alone in this industry; you and others are building large camera networks, assisted by artificial intelligence, that intrude on the privacy of all Americans.”
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Hawley, who serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, has been vocal about his concerns that Flock Safety cameras undermine personal privacy with an AI-powered system that tracks the movements of Americans.
“Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school or go to church,” Hawley said in a post on X last week. “I’m investigating Flock cameras to determine WHO has access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ data – and what they’re doing with it.”
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Hawley asked each of the companies to explain how broadly customers can search vehicle data, how long the company retains license plate information, how many confirmed cases of misuse have occurred since 2021 and what safeguards are in place to ensure law enforcement officers provide legitimate justifications before conducting searches.
“We received the letter and have reached out to Senator Hawley’s office to discuss his requests,” an Axon spokesperson said. “We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to safety and responsible innovation.”
A number of politicians have taken action against AI-powered cameras, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordering the removal of all license plate reader cameras from Florida state roads and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordering all state agencies to stop spending state money on Flock Safety cameras.
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Flock Safety cameras use artificial intelligence to automatically track and identify vehicles and license plates for local law enforcement use. Nationwide concern has grown about whether the AI-backed system should be allowed to track the movement of vehicles without a warrant or the consent of drivers.
About 150,000 Flock Safety cameras operate in every state except Alaska.
Last week, Hawley also sent a letter to Flock Safety, requesting similar information from the company.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Flock Safety said the company would comply with the investigation.
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“We look forward to working with Senator Hawley and the Subcommittee to provide additional context about how our technology works, the safeguards built into our platform and how law enforcement agencies use Flock to solve crime and find missing people,” Flock Safety spokesperson Paris Lewbel said.
INSIDE THE FAR-LEFT’S ANTI-DATA CENTER PUSH AND WHAT EXPERTS SAY IS DRIVING IT: ‘PLAYBOOK WE’VE SEEN BEFORE’
The growing backlash against Flock cameras illustrates an unusual convergence: Republicans and far-left activists are arriving at the same target from sharply different ideological directions. While GOP lawmakers are focused on privacy, government overreach and protecting Americans from warrantless tracking, socialist and communist organizers have folded the cameras into a broader campaign against artificial intelligence, policing, immigration enforcement, the construction of data centers and the demonization of the United States as a “police state” and “AI surveillance state.”
Over the past year, far-left organizations within a network funded by pro-China, Shanghai-based tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham have built vocal community campaigns against the Flock Safety cameras, while also targeting the construction of data centers. The GOP, including President Donald Trump and administration officials, have been leading voices of support for the continued construction of data centers.
In May, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Denver chapter partnered with Indivisible and the far-left Sunrise Movement and promoted a forum examining the “connections between mass surveillance and data centers and how BOTH only serve the needs of billionaires and not our communities.”
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By July 25, in Tucson, Ariz., the local Party for Socialism and Liberation chapter joined “deFLOCK Tucson” and the “No Desert Data Center Coalition” for an event called “It’s ALL Connected” at the “Global Justice Center” on E. 26th Street.
The promotional material asked what mass surveillance, data centers and electric power had in common. The answer: “IT’S ALL CONNECTED.”
In a new report, “The Compute War at Home,” commissioned by Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, the authors note that “money, media, organizing capacity and campaign objectives converge in the same ecosystem.”
“Issue pairings rarely multiply fourteen-fold in a matter of weeks without a catalyst, particularly when the surge begins immediately after organizers start promoting the connection,” the report states.
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