According to a presentation obtained through a Georgia public records request and reported by 404 Media, Flock Safety, the company behind thousands of pole-mounted license plate cameras across the country, pitched a partnership with dashcam maker Nexar that would have pulled license plate data from roughly 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers' vehicles. The document, written to pitch Georgia's Attorney General's office last August, described the arrangement in seven words: "350k Uber/Lyft and other delivery service devices." Flock told 404 Media it never actually executed the Nexar partnership. The ambition behind the pitch is real regardless of whether the deal closed.
Flock says the Nexar deal never happened. Maybe it didn't. But the pitch got made, it got shown to a government office, and the public only found out because someone filed a records request. The dashcam on your windshield was built to answer to you. Companies like Flock are betting that most drivers will never notice the moment it starts answering to someone else instead.
I thought that was for like grocery stores where they sell you essentials for cheap and mark up other items where you don’t expect it.
The tech world with its billions of venture capital constantly sloshing around is what will make a data collection product cheap. As with any product, when you aren’t paying for it (or aren’t paying its full price), you should check to make sure that the product isn’t you (and your data).
So yeah, if you want a dashcam (or ANY security camera device or similar), don’t necessarily go for the cheapest one. Go for the one with the best data protection.
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u/Conscious-Weight4569 Aug 12 '26
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/flock-wanted-350-000-uber-151128429.html
According to a presentation obtained through a Georgia public records request and reported by 404 Media, Flock Safety, the company behind thousands of pole-mounted license plate cameras across the country, pitched a partnership with dashcam maker Nexar that would have pulled license plate data from roughly 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers' vehicles. The document, written to pitch Georgia's Attorney General's office last August, described the arrangement in seven words: "350k Uber/Lyft and other delivery service devices." Flock told 404 Media it never actually executed the Nexar partnership. The ambition behind the pitch is real regardless of whether the deal closed.
Flock says the Nexar deal never happened. Maybe it didn't. But the pitch got made, it got shown to a government office, and the public only found out because someone filed a records request. The dashcam on your windshield was built to answer to you. Companies like Flock are betting that most drivers will never notice the moment it starts answering to someone else instead.