Home / Technology / Proton Hosts Flock Surveillance Map on Swiss Servers
Proton Hosts Flock Surveillance Map on Swiss Servers
22 Oct
Summary
- Proton now hosts a free, public Flock surveillance map.
- Map reveals over 214,000 active Flock devices nationwide.
- Switzerland's privacy laws protect the map from Flock's demands.
Proton, the company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN, has announced it is now hosting a powerful surveillance mapping tool created by Flock.
This free platform provides public access to a database of Flock Safety's automated license plate readers and AI surveillance cameras throughout the United States. The move offers increased technical and legal safeguards for the interactive map, which Flock has previously attempted to have removed through legal threats.
The tool reveals that the number of active Flock devices exceeds Flock's own estimates. While Flock stated it operates over 120,000 cameras nationwide this summer, the Proton-hosted map indicates more than 214,000 devices are in service, with an additional 80,000 in the planning stages.
Security researcher Joshua Michael, who originally published the map, has faced trademark complaints from Flock. By hosting the map on its servers in Switzerland, Proton leverages the country's strong privacy laws, making it more difficult for Flock, a US-based company, to compel its removal without a Swiss court order. Proton has committed to updating the map if new, reliable data becomes available.
