Follow surveillance companies across the supply chain, then examine the security, privacy, reuse, transfer, and government-access failures that turn private data into public power.
ALPR cameras in Pensacola Beach. Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0.
One working dataset, organized through two views. Every record is tagged to the relevant watchlist company, its place in the surveillance supply chain, and any documented data-stewardship failure.
The City of Ventura said a Flock configuration error allowed two out-of-state agencies to query a system that the city had restricted to California agencies.
The city reported that no federal agency accessed the system and said it could not determine whether vehicle data was returned. Flock later implemented additional safeguards.
City of VenturaCompany watchlistChatrie tests whether police can use a provider to identify devices near a place and time, the same reverse-search pattern the Public Power report flags.
Supreme CourtNationalIJ reviewed media reports and court records involving ALPR errors, including several Flock-related incidents since 2023.
Institute for JusticeNationalLAPD cited civil-liberties, data ownership, privacy, and security concerns as public agencies reconsidered Flock contracts.
Business InsiderLos AngelesRing said the planned integration never launched, but the episode showed how quickly household camera networks raise public concern.
ABC7 Chicago / APNationalThe FTC finalized an order addressing the collection, use, and sale of sensitive location information, including data associated with health-related locations and places of worship.
The order followed an FTC complaint alleging collection and use without verifiable consent for commercial and government uses, with limited exceptions in the final order. Precise mobile-device location, movement histories, visits to sensitive places, and geolocation analytics. The final order restricted sale, disclosure, and use of sensitive location data, subject to limited law-enforcement and national-security circumstances.
Federal Trade CommissionCompany watchlistEFF reported that documents contradicted public claims that a nationwide ALPR search was only a missing-person welfare check.
Electronic Frontier FoundationTexas / IllinoisIllinois officials said a Texas search used more than 83,000 ALPR cameras and triggered review of abortion and immigration-related queries.
ABC7 ChicagoIllinoisA Washington trial court rejected municipal arguments that Flock-stored ALPR data escaped public-records access until downloaded by an agency.
Electronic Frontier FoundationWashingtonResearchers analyzed Flock audit logs and reported apparent federal access paths into local police camera networks.
UW Center for Human RightsWashingtonThe federal review detailed operational and strategic decisions that contributed to a compromise affecting government email accounts and issued security recommendations.
This record concerns cloud security and stewardship risk, not surveillance-product misconduct. It matters here because GISA assigns continuing duties around sensitive government information held in contractor systems.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security AgencyCompany watchlistUnited States v. Smith treated the geofence warrant as a modern general warrant, sharpening the constitutional stakes of provider-held location data.
Electronic Frontier FoundationFifth CircuitThe Mobilewalla action shows why broker consent, sensitive-location screening, retention, deletion, and customer-use controls belong in the campaign frame.
Federal Trade CommissionData broker marketRing’s policy change illustrates how consumer devices can become police-access infrastructure unless product rules, defaults, and legal process are constrained.
Electronic Frontier FoundationResidential camerasResidents challenged the city’s use of Flock ALPRs, arguing the network allowed pervasive location tracking without adequate constitutional safeguards.
Institute for JusticeNorfolk, VirginiaThe FTC alleged that Axon’s acquisition of VieVu reduced competition for body-camera systems sold to large metropolitan police departments.
Safariland separately settled claims about related agreements. The FTC withdrew its adjudication against Axon in 2023 after procedural litigation, so the challenge did not produce a final merits ruling against Axon.
Federal Trade Commission matter docketCompany watchlistThe Justice Department said Booz Allen agreed to resolve allegations that commercial and international costs were improperly charged to government contracts and subcontracts.
The settlement agreement states that Booz Allen denied the allegations and that the compromise was not an admission of liability.
U.S. Department of JusticeCompany watchlistCalifornia resolved allegations that Google collected, stored, and used consumer location data for profiling and advertising without informed consent.
The stipulated judgment addressed consumer location settings and advertising practices at Google. It was not a finding about Google Cloud or a government-cloud deployment.
California Department of JusticeCompany watchlistThe FTC alleged overly broad employee and contractor access, video use for algorithm development without adequate consent, and failures to reduce credential-stuffing attacks.
Private home-security video, account data, face embeddings, and work products derived from recordings. Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million and implement a privacy and security program. The order required deletion of specified videos, embeddings, and derived work products.
Federal Trade CommissionPrivate-data marketThe FTC and DOJ alleged that Amazon retained children's Alexa recordings indefinitely by default and failed to remove some transcripts after deletion requests.
Voice recordings and transcripts, geolocation, account activity, and algorithm-training material. Amazon agreed to a $25 million civil penalty, revised deletion practices, and limits on using data subject to deletion requests to improve data products.
Federal Trade CommissionPrivate-data marketA court-approved settlement in ACLU v. Clearview AI permanently barred the company from making its faceprint database available to most private entities nationwide.
The case alleged violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. It ended by consent order, not a trial judgment on every allegation.
ACLU case record and consent orderCompany watchlistThe Justice Department Inspector General found that the FBI’s $87.5 million-ceiling IDEMIA purchase was rushed, used an improper noncompetitive procurement method, and omitted clauses addressing accountability, privacy, and other risks.
The audit focused on the FBI’s acquisition and contract administration. It reported no questioned costs and did not find that IDEMIA violated the law.
Department of Justice Office of Inspector GeneralCompany watchlistThe SEC said Oracle subsidiaries in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and India created and used off-book funds in connection with business involving foreign officials.
This is a corporate anti-bribery and internal-controls record, not a finding about Oracle’s U.S. government cloud or its handling of government information.
U.S. Securities and Exchange CommissionCompany watchlistThe FTC alleged Kochava sold geolocation data capable of tracing people to clinics, places of worship, shelters, and recovery facilities.
Federal Trade CommissionData broker marketACLU litigation over Clearview shows the private biometric database path: web-scraped faces, commercial access, and law-enforcement search capability.
ACLUIllinois / nationalChicago’s Office of Inspector General found evidence of a gun-related criminal offense in 9.1% of the police responses with a recorded disposition in its review period.
The report examined police outcomes, not the acoustic accuracy of every alert. SoundThinking and supporters have disputed broader claims that the technology is ineffective.
Chicago Office of Inspector GeneralCompany watchlistThe FTC alleged that Everalbum misrepresented when facial recognition would be enabled and retained content from deactivated accounts for face-recognition development.
Personal photos and videos, facial embeddings, facial-recognition models, and retained account content. The order required express consent and deletion of affected photos, videos, face embeddings, and models or algorithms developed from improperly retained or used data.
Federal Trade CommissionPrivate-data marketThe ShotSpotter review shows the governance problem when vendor-generated alerts change police behavior but accountability turns on accuracy, documentation, and downstream stops.
Chicago Office of Inspector GeneralChicagoIBM and Cúram Software resolved allegations that they made material misrepresentations about software development, functionality, and integration during Maryland’s health-exchange contract process.
Maryland later replaced the platform after launch problems. The settlement resolved allegations only and did not determine liability; it does not concern IBM’s current federal AI offerings.
U.S. Department of JusticeCompany watchlistFTC actions addressed Facebook privacy representations and third-party app access, as well as Cambridge Analytica voter-profiling activity using data collected through an app.
Social profiles, friend networks, app permissions, interests, political profiles, and advertising identifiers. Facebook agreed to a $5 billion penalty and a 20-year privacy-governance order. Separate Cambridge Analytica matters imposed deletion and use restrictions.
Federal Trade CommissionPrivate-data marketAccenture Federal Services paid approximately $1.74 million to settle overcharges on a General Services Administration schedule contract caused by unauthorized subcontractor purchases.
Accenture disclosed the issue after an internal investigation and assisted the government. The civil claims were allegations only, with no determination of liability.
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of VirginiaCompany watchlistThe Department of Labor entered a consent decree resolving allegations that Palantir discriminated against Asian applicants for engineering positions.
The decree required $1.66 million in back wages and other relief plus job offers to eight eligible applicants. This employment matter does not concern the operation of Palantir’s data platforms.
U.S. Department of LaborCompany watchlistThe Justice Department announced a $1.5 million settlement with SAIC, identified in the release as then known as Leidos Holdings, over alleged undisclosed conflicts on Nuclear Regulatory Commission work.
The underlying conduct dated from 1992 through 2000. The False Claims Act claims were allegations only, and the settlement made no liability determination.
U.S. Department of JusticeCompany watchlistVendor evidence platforms show the stewardship side of the PDFs: capture, storage, AI search, disclosure, chain of custody, retention, and interagency sharing.
AxonAgency evidence systemsThe company describes its platform as connecting detection, investigation, and response, a useful public-facing contrast for the site’s policy argument.
Flock SafetyCompany materialsSystems are purchased and networked first. Questions about access, accuracy, public records, and constitutional limits often arrive only after the infrastructure is embedded.
The market pattern matters: cameras can be owned and operated by a vendor while governments, businesses, schools, neighborhoods, and property managers participate in a shared investigative network.
Problem brief and Public Power reportThe campaign should show how a camera outside an ordinary store or property can become part of a broader public-private search layer when data is shared or queried for government purposes.
Wikimedia image record and source reportsAmazon Ring said it would stop letting police request doorbell footage directly from users through the Neighbors app, showing how household devices can become law-enforcement access infrastructure unless product rules change.
Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Fourth Circuit allowed geofence evidence in Chatrie while the Fifth Circuit held the geofence warrant in Smith unconstitutional, exposing the unstable doctrine around reverse-location searches of provider-held data.
EFF and appellate opinionsFTC actions against Mobilewalla, Gravy Analytics, Venntel, and related broker practices illustrate the commercial supply chain that can expose visits to homes, clinics, places of worship, shelters, and political or associational spaces.
Federal Trade CommissionThe Supreme Court held that obtaining stored phone-location records from a company triggers Fourth Amendment scrutiny, reinforcing the campaign premise that private custody should not erase public-law safeguards.
Supreme Court and public reportingIllinois officials said Texas law enforcement used a nationwide ALPR search involving more than 83,000 cameras in a matter connected to abortion care, and the state found additional immigration-related searches.
ABC7 ChicagoEFF reported that documents and court records showed the ALPR query was tied to an abortion investigation, sharpening the need for purpose limits, audit trails, and cross-jurisdiction controls.
Electronic Frontier FoundationA Washington trial court rejected the argument that ALPR data stored by Flock was outside public-records access when the cameras were paid for and used for a governmental purpose.
Electronic Frontier FoundationBusiness Insider reported LAPD allowed its agreement to expire after concerns over civil liberties, data ownership, security, and possible federal access to locally collected data.
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