Boston dumps Flock, says it shared data nationwide in violation of contract
Boston dumps Flock, says it shared data nationwide in violation of contract
波士顿弃用 Flock，称其违反合同在全国范围内共享数据
The Boston city government abandoned Flock Safety’s license-plate reader cameras after the company shared data nationwide in violation of a contract provision, according to city officials. 据波士顿市政府官员称，在 Flock Safety 公司违反合同条款、在全国范围内共享数据后，波士顿市政府已弃用了该公司的车牌识别摄像头。
“We have actually abandoned Flock,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in her monthly “Ask the Mayor” segment on GBH News last week. Wu made the comment a few days before the release of Boston’s annual surveillance technology report, which said a Flock “vendor error” resulted in nationwide data sharing. “我们实际上已经弃用了 Flock，”波士顿市长米歇尔·吴（Michelle Wu）上周在 GBH 新闻的月度“问市长”节目中表示。吴市长发表此番评论是在波士顿发布年度监控技术报告的前几天，该报告指出，Flock 的一次“供应商错误”导致了数据在全国范围内的共享。
The report, which covers 2025, describes how the Boston Police Department deployed about 45 Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras in a trial with Flock from April to September last year. The unauthorized data sharing occurred during the first few days of the pilot, the report said: 这份涵盖 2025 年的报告描述了波士顿警察局（BPD）如何在去年 4 月至 9 月期间，通过与 Flock 的试点项目部署了约 45 台自动车牌识别（ALPR）摄像头。报告称，未经授权的数据共享发生在试点开始后的最初几天：
Pursuant to the contract, the Flock ALPR Pilot Program was designed to restrict access to the data collected by BPD ALPR cameras exclusively to trained BPD警察 personnel. The contract clearly noted that data sharing was to be disabled, and BPD confirmed with Flock that settings were “off” for sharing. 根据合同，Flock ALPR 试点项目旨在将 BPD ALPR 摄像头所收集数据的访问权限仅限于受过培训的 BPD 人员。合同明确指出必须禁用数据共享功能，且 BPD 已与 Flock 确认共享设置处于“关闭”状态。
Within three days of initiating the Pilot, BPD became aware that other law enforcement agencies were able to access license plate and vehicle information collected from BPD ALPR cameras using a nationwide lookup feature that was enabled by the vendor in error. Upon learning of the vendor error, BPD ensured that the function was immediately disabled and access to the Department’s data was no longer available without submitting a written request to BPD as described above. No further direct access was available for the duration of the Pilot. 在试点启动后的三天内，BPD 发现其他执法机构能够通过供应商错误启用的全国查询功能，访问 BPD ALPR 摄像头收集的车牌和车辆信息。在得知该供应商错误后，BPD 确保该功能被立即禁用，且在未按上述规定向 BPD 提交书面请求的情况下，无法再访问该部门的数据。在试点期间，未再发生任何直接访问的情况。
The report didn’t say how many law enforcement agencies accessed the data. The problem with Flock didn’t stop Boston from seeking another vendor of license-plate reader technology. The police department started another license-plate reader trial with Motorola in February 2026 and a third trial with Axon in June 2026. 报告并未说明有多少执法机构访问了这些数据。Flock 出现的问题并没有阻止波士顿寻求其他车牌识别技术供应商。波士顿警察局于 2026 年 2 月与摩托罗拉（Motorola）开始了另一次车牌识别试点，并于 2026 年 6 月与 Axon 进行了第三次试点。
Boston’s report comes amid a larger privacy debate over law enforcement access to license-plate camera data. An Electronic Frontier Foundation report yesterday described how the nationwide lookup tool lets police conduct searches with little or no justification. 波士顿这份报告发布之际，正值关于执法部门访问车牌摄像头数据引发的更大范围隐私辩论之时。电子前沿基金会（EFF）昨日发布的一份报告描述了该全国查询工具如何让警察在几乎没有或完全没有正当理由的情况下进行搜索。
“An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock Safety systems shows that officers across the country are spying on drivers for completely nonsensical ‘reasons,’” the EFF wrote. “Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like ‘LOL’ (short for ‘laugh out loud’), ‘LMAO’ (short for ‘laughing my ass off’), ‘sexy,’ and ‘idk’ (short for ‘I don’t know’) to access sensitive ALPR location data.” “EFF 对 Flock Safety 系统 ALPR 搜索日志的分析显示，全国各地的警察正以完全荒谬的‘理由’监视司机，”EFF 写道。“警察在没有任何合法理由的情况下频繁搜索 Flock 数据库，通过记录诸如‘LOL’（大笑）、‘LMAO’（笑死我了）、‘sexy’（性感）和‘idk’（不知道）等理由来访问敏感的 ALPR 位置数据，这简直是对我们公民自由的嘲弄。”
The EFF wrote that “Flock Safety claims it has improved its system by requiring officers to select from a dropdown list of crimes before running a search,” but the new system in place since late 2025 “does not require proof that the dropdown reason actually matches the true purpose of the search.” EFF 写道，“Flock Safety 声称已改进其系统，要求警察在进行搜索前从下拉菜单中选择犯罪类型，”但自 2025 年底实施的新系统“并不要求证明下拉菜单中的理由确实与搜索的真实目的相符。”
Boston will keep using cameras, just not Flock’s
波士顿将继续使用摄像头，但不再使用 Flock 的产品
When asked if the city will keep using license-plate cameras as long as there are appropriate constraints, Wu replied, “Yes, we need a publicly approved and authorized policy to guarantee all of those protections, privacy, civil liberties, and if that’s in place, then we should deploy technology to be able to keep people safe and solve crimes faster.” 当被问及只要有适当的约束，该市是否会继续使用车牌摄像头时，吴市长回答说：“是的，我们需要一项经公众批准和授权的政策来保障所有这些保护措施、隐私和公民自由。如果这些条件具备，我们就应该部署技术，以便保障人们的安全并更快地侦破犯罪。”
Boston’s annual report said the city requires vendors to agree not to share license-plate-reader data and to erase recordings after 30 days unless police request that video be retained for legal or investigative purposes. 波士顿的年度报告称，该市要求供应商同意不共享车牌识别数据，并在 30 天后删除记录，除非警方要求为法律或调查目的保留视频。
“The police department has been piloting different versions [of the technology] to better understand where vehicles might be going,” Wu said. City officials need to “know exactly who can access that data, how it will be retained, how long will it be saved for,” she said. “警察局一直在试点不同版本（的技术），以更好地了解车辆的去向，”吴市长说。她表示，市政府官员需要“确切地知道谁可以访问这些数据，数据将如何保留，以及保存多长时间。”
“It can really help with safety in a lot of ways, but it has to be used responsibly,” Wu said. “When the toggles or the access controls either are not able to be restricted in the ways that conform with that policy, or are set but then can be unset or reset in ways that violate that policy, we would not use that platform.” “它确实可以在很多方面有助于安全，但必须负责任地使用，”吴市长说。“当开关或访问控制无法按照符合该政策的方式进行限制，或者设置后又可以以违反该政策的方式取消或重置时，我们就不会使用该平台。”
As we wrote last month, cities have been dropping Flock at an accelerating pace “over concerns regarding out-of-control surveillance, unwanted data sharing, high expenses, and reports of police abusing the tool.” However, the company told Ars at the time that, “so far in 2026, new city partnerships have outpaced nonrenewals by approximately 10 to 1.” 正如我们上个月所写，各城市正以越来越快的速度弃用 Flock，“原因是对失控的监控、不必要的数据共享、高昂的费用以及警察滥用该工具的报道感到担忧。”然而，该公司当时告诉 Ars：“到 2026 年为止，新建立的城市合作伙伴关系与不再续约的数量之比约为 10 比 1。”
We contacted Flock today about the Boston city report and will update this article if it provides a response. 我们今天就波士顿市的报告联系了 Flock，如果收到回复，我们将更新本文。