Proton is hosting security researcher Joshua Michael's free, interactive map of Flock Safety surveillance devices across the US, CNET reports. It covers automated license plate readers and AI surveillance cameras. Michael first published the map in September, before Flock filed a trademark complaint, according to CNET.
Michael told CNET that Flock had “promised to take every measure possible to take my research offline.” He offered that as one reason Proton moved to preserve the map on Swiss servers. CNET reports that Flock has repeatedly tried to shut down the tool through legal threats and that the map remains publicly accessible despite demands for its removal. A Flock representative did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
The map says more than 214,000 Flock devices are in service, with more than 80,000 in the planning stages. CNET separately reports that Flock said this summer it operated more than 120,000 cameras nationwide. These are not like-for-like counts: the map gives figures for devices in service and planned devices, while Flock's figure concerns cameras it said it operated this summer.
CNET's Tyler Lacoma praised the map's visual clarity, search speed and interface compared with other sites he had tried. But CNET describes it as a point-in-time view and notes that camera locations keep changing. A Proton spokesperson told CNET the company would update the map if new and reliable data becomes available.
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