The East Hampton Village Police Chief put it bluntly the other day when he remarked, “Big Brother is everywhere” during a village board meeting discussion of a new security camera system aimed at vehicles entering and leaving the village. The system, marketed by a firm called Flock Safety, goes beyond now-familiar license-plate readers to record a range of other data, including vehicles’ makes, models, color, and even bumper stickers. This should immediately ring alarm bells about privacy concerns as well as whether the data retention is a form of unwarranted surveillance.
The issue is that Flock Safety and other surveillance industry players take local data, like the data to be collected in East Hampton Village, and feed them into a nationwide watch system recording people’s comings and goings, whether they are suspected of a crime or not. License-plate readers are different and flush their data in the absence of a “hit” for a suspended registration or other offense. East Hampton Village officials should think again before willingly becoming part of a giant system designed to spy on Americans.
Key questions stem from whether the systems impinge on people’s right to move around freely. Local police can address these by sharing with the public details about how long the data are retained, with whom the data are shared, and how those data are used by law enforcement. Absent assurances that there will be strict privacy controls, police could soon have a record of your trips to doctor’s offices, religious institutions, and political gatherings. There is also the issue of domestic violence and if an abuser could gain access to the whereabouts of a victim looking to flee.
In New Hampshire, state law mandates that Flock data can only be retained for three minutes. Emulating this would be a good place for East Hampton to start if it wishes to ensure the privacy of residents and visitors alike.