Disturbing twist involving Flock database and women seeking abortions (nypost.com)

submitted 2 days ago by velma@sh.itjust.works to c/wildfeed@sh.itjust.works

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Trevor Chandler, the firm’s senior director of public affairs, made the stunning revelation during a presentation earlier this month to a group of Suffolk County pols and conceded the cameras can help “reconstruct” people’s movements, which would include under circumstances involving abortion.

But he noted that states can opt out of the searches, which New York does.

“Every agency that utilizes Flock in New York has our reproductive-health search filter turned on,” Chandler said as he was grilled by legislators on how the controversial tech works.

“This prevents any searches related to reproductive health to make sure that no searches are made out of compliance with state law,” the representative insisted.

The company added in a statement, “Certain states have enacted laws restricting the use of [license-plate-reader] data in connection with immigration enforcement or reproductive health investigations.”

But otherwise, police departments in states that do not opt out can potentially pinpoint people seeking the procedure through a simple license-plate search.

And since departments can share Flock data with other police across the nation, officers in states with bans could potentially track women who cross state lines to get an abortion in states where it remains legal — and cops currently don’t need a warrant to look through Flock’s database.

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[-] lowjack@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Wow... Who would have guessed that in the land of the free? Must be all that winning and Freedumb.

[-] riskable@programming.dev 13 points 2 days ago

Solution: Flock data is now classified as HIPAA health data and must follow those rules.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026

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