Crow's Nest
Thursday, September 10, 2026 · The digital civil-liberties brief · View on the web
Top News
Georgia's Department of Human Services spent $639,000 on four surveillance tools including ShadowDragon and Cellebrite; DFCS uses them to track runaways (By Johnny Edwards / The Center Square: Georgia)
Invoices obtained by The Center Square show Georgia's child welfare agency spent over $639,000 on tools like Cellebrite and Anomaly Six to extract phone data and track locations. Yahoo reports state lawmakers questioned whether using police-grade surveillance on foster youth violates Fourth Amendment protections.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott freezes ALPR funds after a Lufkin officer stalked an ex 10,000 times; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also moves to restrict the technology (Jacob Sullum / Reason)
Reason reports Texas Gov. Greg Abbott froze state funding for automated license plate readers while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis moved to curb them, following criminal charges against police officers in both states who allegedly used the surveillance databases to stalk personal targets.
Ruling: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blocks IRS from sharing millions of addresses with ICE; 3-judge panel upholds lower court order on Tuesday (Rebecca Beitsch / thehill.com)
The D.C. Circuit upheld a ruling blocking the IRS from disclosing millions of taxpayers' addresses to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The Hill reported, after judges rejected ICE's sweeping bulk data request.
Bill: A federal U.S. House bill named Flock-Off seeks to cut all federal funding used by local law enforcement to deploy automated Flock surveillance cameras (reclaimthenet.org)
Under federal legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Russ Fulcher, federal law enforcement would be barred from accessing local surveillance systems like automated license plate readers without a judicial warrant, the Post Register reports.
Rockingham County commissioners in North Carolina unanimously vote to regulate Flock ALPR cameras; policies must be published 14 days before public hearings (Tiana Maxwell / myfox8.com)
Rockingham County commissioners approved an ordinance requiring board approval and a public hearing before installing automated license plate readers, WGHP and WXII report. Officials described the rule as a precautionary check on police surveillance before any contracts are signed.
Dallas reviews its Flock ALPR cameras after Texas pauses grants for 321 devices; police credit the network with helping solve 49 homicide cases since 2023 (Lacey Beasley / CBS News)
Texas paused state grant funding for Dallas's Flock license plate camera network over privacy and misuse concerns, CBS News and Fox 4 report. In response to council scrutiny, Flock representatives said the company is adding audits to monitor officer search patterns.
COUNTERPOINT Dallas Leaders Question Flock Safety Over License Plate Camera Oversight (FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth)
Surveillance & Privacy
Settlement: Grindr pays £26 million to resolve a UK class action over sharing user HIV status; the dating app admits no liability in the April 2024 lawsuit (theregister.com)
Grindr agreed to pay £26 million ($35 million) to resolve claims by UK users that it violated privacy laws by sharing sensitive medical information with third parties, The Register and The Record report. The company admitted no liability under the settlement.
7 Connecticut towns contract with BusPatrol to install AI license plate readers on school buses; New Haven logged 12,000 incidents across over 300 buses (Angela Eichhorst / The Connecticut Mirror)
Seven Connecticut municipalities have contracted with BusPatrol to mount automated cameras on school buses that log license plates and send footage to police when stop arms are deployed, The Connecticut Mirror reported, noting New Haven alone recorded 12,000 incidents.
Social media platforms privately resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenas seeking to unmask anonymous accounts tracking immigration enforcement (Mario Trujillo / techdirt.com)
Techdirt reports that major social media companies have resisted administrative subpoenas from Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at identifying anonymous accounts that tracked immigration enforcement or criticized the government.
Sainsbury's expands Facewatch from 55 to 200 UK stores by end of 2026; Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Brian Plastow calls Scotland's 2011 rules outdated (biometricupdate.com)
Tech Times reports Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Brian Plastow called the government's surveillance policy outdated as retailers expand Facewatch facial recognition technology into hundreds of locations without statutory oversight.
Microsoft and the American Federation of Teachers agreed Wednesday to AI standards barring student data in model training after two major districts set bans (thehill.com)
Under a new agreement between Microsoft and the American Federation of Teachers, student and educator data cannot be sold or used to train AI models, The Hill and The Verge reported.
Alabama Power facilitates Flock surveillance camera deployments in Birmingham; the report is the fifth in an Inside Climate News series on electric rates (Lee Hedgepeth / alabamareflector.com)
Security Industry Association seeks ALPR safeguards as 214 cities and counties abandon Flock Safety since 2021, including 93 in August alone (Rodney Bosch / Security Info Watch)
The Security Industry Association urged lawmakers to enact Automated License Plate Reader safeguards following reports that over 200 municipalities canceled contracts with provider Flock Safety, Security Info Watch reported.
Steubenville, Ohio debates 11 Flock license-plate cameras installed without a vote; Councilman Royal Mayo seeks an immediate halt before March 2026 grant ends (Steven Moore / WTRF)
WTRF and WTOV report that Steubenville residents and officials debated 11 Flock license-plate cameras installed without a council vote. Councilman Royal Mayo moved to halt the surveillance over privacy objections, while Councilman Joel Walker proposed keeping the cameras unless they are ruled illegal.
Coming Up
Thu Sep 10 · MEETING · Alexandria, MN — Alexandria Police Department hosts a public forum on Flock surveillance cameras (Echo Press)
Mon Sep 14 · TAKES EFFECT · Oklahoma — Alcoholic beverage establishments and tobacco retailers begin accepting digital driver licenses and state IDs for age verification (News 9)
Mon Sep 14 · MEETING · York, ME — York Selectboard hears a police update on Flock surveillance cameras (Seacoastonline.com)
Tue Sep 15 · TAKES EFFECT · Dallas, TX — Dallas Police Department deactivates 321 state-funded Flock license plate reader cameras (The Epoch Times)
Thu Sep 17 · EXPIRES · Utah — Expiration of forbearance agreement pausing enforcement of Utah online age verification law SB 73 against Aylo (ABC 4)
Fri Sep 18 · COMMENTS DUE · Federal Trade Commission — FTC accepts public comments on proposed enforcement policy requiring disclosure of personalized surveillance pricing (JD Supra)
Useful
DeFlock (deflock.org)
Crowdsourced map of automated license plate readers. Check your commute, then add the cameras you pass that are not on it yet.
Atlas of Surveillance (atlasofsurveillance.org)
EFF's searchable record of which surveillance technologies each police department has bought, by city and agency.
Speech, Press & Transparency
Filing: TikTok moves to dismiss Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's lawsuit; the state's 2024 law HB 3 bans Floridians under 14 from social media apps (Jay Waagmeester / floridaphoenix.com)
FIRE gives four Ohio colleges failing grades in its 2027 speech rankings; nearly 63,000 students were surveyed across 261 schools from Jan. 2 through June 3 (Megan Henry / ohiocapitaljournal.com)
FOIA: Ontario Labour Ministry defies IPC orders to release Skills Development Fund records during a 9-month ethics probe into David Piccini (Jessica Smith Cross / BarrieToday.com)
More on the Beat
Knox County Mayor Betsy Henderson delays removal of 143 Flock license plate readers until Oct. 7; the commission unanimously voted to remove them by Sept. 16 (Gregory Raucoules / WATE 6 On Your Side)
Pflugerville, Texas canceled its $175,000 Flock Safety contract on Aug. 25, cutting 28 cameras after a 400-agency breach; 11 other localities also cut ties (Nathan Langley / KXAN.com)
Flock Safety has deployed over 120,000 license plate cameras across 7,000 U.S. law enforcement agencies; CEO Garrett Langley founded the Atlanta firm in 2017 (Brady Brickner-Wood / The New Yorker)
Grand Rapids police and Kent County, Michigan launch Flock portals on September 8, 2026; GRPD keeps 30 days of data and the county sheriff manages 62 cameras (Donny Ede / WWMT)
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin plans to drop its $18,000 Flock contract for six cameras after three years; Alderman Lou Kowieski objects to leasing data to others (Ben Jordan / TMJ4)
Brunswick County, North Carolina Commissioner Pat Sykes challenges Sheriff Brian Chism on plate readers; New Hanover County canceled its Flock Safety contract (Kamy Smelser / WWAYTV3)
Germany's BfV refuses to disclose ChapsVision's ArgonOS AI capabilities to the Bundestag; Die Linke filed 20 technical inquiry questions on June 26, 2026 (Collin Mercer / Tech Times)
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