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The possibility that U.S. immigration authorities could track the movements of a vehicle has raised concerns among immigrant communities.
At the center of the debate is Flock Safety, a company that operates one of the largest networks of automated license plate readers (ALPR) in the country and has been flagged by organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for the risks it poses to privacy.
What are Flock cameras?
Flock Safety systems are designed to capture images of vehicles driving on the streets. These cameras record information such as the license plate, make, model, color, and the location where the car was detected.
According to the ACLU, the Flock network has more than 120,000 automated license plate readers distributed in different communities across the United States. The organization maintains that these systems allow for the collection of massive amounts of information on the movements of millions of drivers, creating large-scale location databases.
According to the ACLU, these tools do not only record vehicles related to criminal investigations, but practically every car that passes in front of the cameras, which can allow for the reconstruction of movement patterns and people's lifestyle habits.
Does ICE have direct access to these cameras?
Officially, Flock's answer is no. The company states on its website that it does not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that the federal agency does not have direct access to its cameras, systems, or databases.
Flock notes that information sharing with federal agencies is disabled by default and that it is local governments, counties, cities, or entities that own the data who decide whether or not to share information with other agencies.
The company also states that:
- No tiene contratos con ICE.
- No vende datos de sus clientes.
- No comparte información sin autorización del propietario de los datos.
- Las comunidades locales tienen el control sobre quién puede acceder a la información recopilada.
So, why is there concern?
Although Flock insists that ICE does not have direct access to its systems, civil rights organizations and privacy experts have warned that the data can end up being used in immigration investigations through collaboration between different law enforcement agencies.
The ACLU maintains that license plate readers create a mass surveillance infrastructure capable of tracking vehicles across the country. Additionally, it has questioned the measures implemented by the company to prevent misuse of the information.
One of the most controversial points is that police departments can share data with other public safety agencies, which has raised doubts about the possibility that this information could end up being used in immigration-related operations.
The feature that sparked concern
The controversy increased following a 404 Media report on a Flock tool called FreeForm.
According to that report, the feature allows for searches within recordings using physical descriptions, clothing characteristics, tattoos, and even other elements related to a person's appearance.
Although Flock states that it does not use facial recognition technology and denies that its cameras are designed to track people walking on the streets, the existence of advanced search tools has raised concerns about the possible indirect tracking of individuals.
The company responded that FreeForm incorporates security mechanisms designed to detect searches that include terms related to race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality, and that these generate alerts for system administrators.
Can they locate immigrants using a vehicle?
In practice, ALPR cameras are designed to identify vehicles, not people.
However, organizations like the ACLU warn that tracking a vehicle can reveal where a person lives, where they work, the places they visit frequently, and their daily movements.
For this reason, civil rights advocates believe that systems of this type could be used to locate certain individuals through the cars they use regularly, especially when there is information sharing between different security agencies.
Faced with the criticism, Flock announced various changes to its operations, such as reducing the standard data retention period from 30 days to seven days and implementing an "Evidence Mode" to preserve information related to specific investigations.
However, the ACLU believes that these measures have not yet proven sufficiently effective and notes that some previously implemented controls were easy to bypass.
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[Publicidad]