US senator probes AI camera surveillance, raises concerns over misuse of location data

Washington, Aug 27 (IANS) A senior US senator has opened an investigation into an artificial intelligence-powered network of more than 120,000 cameras, raising concerns about the collection and possible misuse of Americans’ location data.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said Wednesday (local time) that the inquiry would examine how Flock Safety collects, retains and distributes information gathered by its cameras.

Hawley chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. He has asked Flock Safety chief executive Garrett Langley to disclose the safeguards used to protect the data.

The company’s cameras capture vehicle information that can be searched by law enforcement agencies and other customers. According to Hawley’s letter, the network operates across 49 states and processes more than 20 billion vehicle scans each month.

“In a few short years, Flock has assembled an unprecedented national surveillance network,” Hawley wrote.

“The overwhelming majority of the Americans captured in those records did nothing wrong,” he added.

Hawley said the cameras use AI to combine the information they collect into a searchable national database. He argued that the system has expanded beyond its use in individual local investigations.

The senator cited incidents in Missouri, Wisconsin, Florida and California to support his concerns. The examples and figures were presented in his letter to Flock Safety and have not been independently verified in the material released by his office.

In Missouri, Hawley said the St. Charles County Police Department ended its contract with Flock Safety after an audit found that a civilian employee had conducted searches for personal reasons.

He also cited the prosecution of a Milwaukee police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend’s licence plate 124 times and her former boyfriend’s plate 55 times.

Hawley raised separate concerns about incorrect alerts. He said a Florida woman spent 13 days in jail and faced eight felony charges after investigators used the camera network to search for a vehicle description. Prosecutors later dismissed the charges and authorities arrested another person, according to his letter.

He also said one California police department found that 71 per cent of its alerts were incorrect. The Los Angeles Police Department ended its Flock contract after an audit found that officers had stopped 161 vehicles wrongly identified as stolen over two months, the letter said.

“Errors and false positives add insult to injury,” Hawley wrote.

The senator also questioned whether data gathered from drivers could be sold or used commercially. He cited Flock Safety’s reported $8.3 billion valuation and sought information about how driver records are stored or sold.

“To be sure, I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe,” Hawley wrote. “But Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church.”

Hawley has demanded documents detailing who can search the database, how the company monitors access and whether information is shared with outside organisations. He set a September 8 deadline for Flock Safety to respond.

The senator said Congress had never authorised the surveillance network and warned that the company’s internal rules effectively served as the principal protection for the information of hundreds of millions of Americans.

“In light of this abuse of driver information, the American people want to know who has access to their personal data and how,” he wrote. Flock Safety’s response was not included in the senator’s announcement.

–IANS

lkj/sd/