Three lefty U.S. senators proposed a new bill on Friday dubbed the Ban Flock Act that would “put an end to the rise in AI-powered surveillance cameras that track Americans across the country.” And while it seems extremely unlikely to pass anytime soon, it will help keep Flock Safety and automatic license plate readers at the center of a national debate about privacy on the nation’s roads.
The bill is being introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, will introduce the bill in the House.
“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders said in a press release Friday.
“Going to the doctor? Flock knows. Dropping your kid off at school? Flock is tracking you. Flock is always watching,” continued Sanders. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”
The bill, the full text of which is available online, would prohibit the feds from using automatic license plate readers and accessing the information collected by ALPR cameras not directly owned by governments. It would also ban federal funds from going to grants at the state and local level that contract with ALPR companies. The bill would also explicitly allow Americans to sue the federal government if their rights have been violated through the use of ALPR technology.
Sanders and AOC are obviously big names in progressive politics but Merkley is no slouch himself. And having some prominent names promoting the idea of banning Flock on the federal level will likely spur plenty of debate, especially as even some Republicans express concerns about how the technology is being used. Public outrage has erupted nationwide as average people grow concerned about the high-tech surveillance that’s seemingly popped up overnight.
“Across the country, Big Tech companies like Flock Safety have built a mass surveillance system to harvest Americans’ private and personal data without their consent,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a press release. “AI-powered cameras are keeping track of our every move and weaponizing this data against working people to make record profits. The widespread integration of this technology into American society is unconscionable.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, announced on Wednesday that he’s introducing his own legislation called the Stop Flock Abuse Act. But all of these bills are likely to wait until after the midterm elections in November before they’re taken up for consideration. Democrats are poised to make enormous gains in the House, if polling can be believed, but gains in the Senate are still very much up in the air.
All eyes are on states like Texas, where Democrat James Talarico is leading Republican Ken Paxton in the polls. But the little noticed races could still pose a problem for Dems. Democrat Peggy Flanagan is leading Republican Michele Tafoya by just one point, according to the latest polls, in the race for Democrat Amy Klobuchar’s seat. If Democrats fail to control Congress, it seems unlikely that these bills to regulate mass surveillance will go anywhere.
