Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash
Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash
Flock Safety 首席执行官呼吁“妥协”，公司正面临日益高涨的抵制浪潮
The country needs to find a “compromise” between privacy and safety, according to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley. “When people talk about just one of these, privacy or safety, they’re prioritizing the wrong thing, and what we have to prioritize as a country is compromise,” Langley said during a recent interview with Fox News. “How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?” Flock Safety 首席执行官 Garrett Langley 表示，国家需要在隐私和安全之间找到一种“妥协”。在最近接受福克斯新闻（Fox News）采访时，Langley 说道：“当人们只谈论隐私或安全其中之一时，他们关注的重点就错了。作为一个国家，我们必须优先考虑的是妥协。我们该如何保障安全，又该如何平衡隐私？”
Langley’s Fox News appearance was just the latest interview he’s given as the company faces a growing public outcry around concerns that Flock’s surveillance cameras, drones, and license plate recognition technology could be misused. These concerns aren’t just hypothetical. The Washington Post recently identified 46 cases where police officers have been accused of using Flock technology for unauthorized purposes, including to stalk their wives, girlfriends, or exes. Langley 此次亮相福克斯新闻只是他近期接受的众多采访之一。目前，公众对 Flock 的监控摄像头、无人机和车牌识别技术可能被滥用的担忧日益高涨，公司正面临巨大的舆论压力。这些担忧并非空穴来风。《华盛顿邮报》最近披露了 46 起案件，指控警察利用 Flock 技术进行未经授权的活动，包括跟踪他们的妻子、女友或前任。
After listening to an interview with one of the alleged victims, Langley told CBS News, “I apologize. It kills me that she went through that.” At the same time, he insisted, “I don’t think that Flock created police abuse. I think we’re the first company to ever shine a light on it and build the tools to find it.” 在听取了一位受害者的采访后，Langley 对哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS News）表示：“我道歉。她经历了这些，这让我感到非常痛苦。”与此同时，他坚持认为：“我不认为 Flock 制造了警察滥用职权的问题。我认为我们是第一家将这一问题曝光并开发出工具来发现它的公司。”
Just as the data center backlash has become a potent issue on both the left and the right, both Democratic and Republican politicians have begun to take aim at Flock. On the left, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed recently accused his opponent Mike Rogers of supporting “this mass proliferation of Flock cameras, any and everywhere, watching your every move to collect information without you even noticing.” And Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted, “STOP AI MASS SURVEILLANCE. STOP FLOCK.” 正如数据中心引发的抵制浪潮已成为左右两派共同关注的焦点一样，民主党和共和党的政客们也开始将矛头指向 Flock。在左翼阵营，密歇根州民主党参议院候选人 Abdul El-Sayed 最近指责其竞争对手 Mike Rogers 支持“这种 Flock 摄像头的大规模扩散，它们无处不在，监视你的一举一动，并在你毫无察觉的情况下收集信息”。佛蒙特州参议员 Bernie Sanders 也发帖称：“停止人工智能大规模监控。停止 Flock。”
On the right, three House Republicans recently introduced a bill that would prohibit the federal government from purchasing automated surveillance systems that use facial recognition, biometric IDs, or license plate recognition, “including a Flock Safety camera.” 在右翼阵营，三名共和党众议员最近提出了一项法案，旨在禁止联邦政府购买使用人脸识别、生物识别 ID 或车牌识别的自动化监控系统，“包括 Flock Safety 摄像头”。
Flock has already made some changes in response to the criticism, reducing the default data retention time from 30 days to seven days and requiring that a case code be entered before accessing data. But both of these changes can be overridden — for example, police can save data for a longer time period by using a setting called Evidence Mode. 为了回应批评，Flock 已经做出了一些调整，将默认数据保留时间从 30 天缩短至 7 天，并要求在访问数据前输入案件代码。但这两项更改都可以被覆盖——例如，警方可以通过使用名为“证据模式”（Evidence Mode）的设置来延长数据保存时间。
In its response to Flock’s announced changes, the American Civil Liberties Union said, “While Flock has not shortened the default retention period to the ACLU’s recommended 48 hours, its proposal may be a step in the right direction. Whether this is a real change or just another Flock PR move, however, will depend on how its ‘Evidence Mode’ operates.” 美国公民自由联盟（ACLU）在回应 Flock 宣布的调整时表示：“虽然 Flock 没有将默认保留期缩短至 ACLU 建议的 48 小时，但其提议可能朝着正确的方向迈出了一步。然而，这究竟是真正的改变，还是 Flock 的又一次公关手段，将取决于其‘证据模式’的运作方式。”
For his part, Langley has said that state regulators should “pass bills that make [the illegal use of Flock data] a criminal offense.” And during his Fox News interview, he pointed to the changes the company has already made, while also saying, “Today, it is too often that in Flock and in other technologies, there’s no regulation. There’s no accountability, and we think that’s wrong.” Langley 本人则表示，州监管机构应该“通过法案，将（非法使用 Flock 数据）定为刑事犯罪”。在接受福克斯新闻采访时，他指出了公司已经做出的改变，同时也表示：“如今，在 Flock 和其他技术领域，缺乏监管的情况太普遍了。没有问责制，我们认为这是错误的。”
TechCrunch will also be asking Langley about these issues when he appears on-stage at our Disrupt conference in October. 当 Langley 在 10 月份出席我们的 Disrupt 大会时，TechCrunch 也将就这些问题对他进行提问。