A Free Tool Is Helping Drivers Dodge Automatic License Plate Readers

[usonian]

DeFlock’s crowdsourced map and FOIA-based plate lookup tool offer drivers free routes around Flock’s 100,000-camera U.S. network

https://www.gadgetreview.com/a-free-tool-is-helping-drivers-dodge-automatic-license-plate-readers


More than 3,000 agencies feed plate scans into a searchable national surveillance network most drivers don’t know exists.

The EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance has documented over 3,000 law enforcement agencies using Flock products as of 2025. According to the ACLU of Massachusetts, local plate scans funnel into a national pool accessible to departments well outside their own jurisdictions. Flock’s standard contracts reportedly allow data disclosure to other agencies for investigative purposes, even when local departments attempt to restrict access.

Flock describes itself as a “vehicle data only” platform — no biometrics, no personally identifiable information, thirty-day default deletion. The ACLU of Oregon offers a sharper counter: “an AI-powered search engine for a surveillance network” that records every passing vehicle, not just suspects. The EFF reported that more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies conducted hundreds of Flock searches related to protest activity over 10 months. That’s not targeted policing. That’s pattern-harvesting at scale.

Now It Wants Your AirPods Too
Newer roadside sensors link Bluetooth signals from personal devices directly to a specific license plate.

Systems like Leonardo’s SignalTrace take the surveillance logic further. Roadside sensors scan for Bluetooth and wireless signals — your phone, smartwatch, earbuds — then algorithmically match devices that consistently travel together to a specific plate. Leonardo calls this “non-intrusive intelligence gathering.” Think of it as ad-tech cookies, except the tracking pixel is roadside hardware operated by law enforcement rather than a banner ad network. Your AirPods were never supposed to be a secretly tracking users beacon. Neither was your Garmin.

Deflock.
https://deflock.org/

Need I say more?




There are Ios and android apps, with the usual opaque in-app-purchases (a fault of app stores) How much the free usage gets you is unknown to me but might be worth trying.

But the maps appear free to use.

https://dontgetflocked.com/maps

I just found this today.
Feedback?

[Lonestarblue]

1. There are legitimate uses for license plate readers, such as collecting information for tolls.

Unfortunately we live in a country being governed by technocrats who either want to monetize all our private data or turn it over to law enforcement for big bucks, and an untrustworthy government that wants to take away our rights.

[-misanthroptimist]

2. Thanks for that

I just found out the nearest reader to me is 175 miles away. I think I'm good.

[hlthe2b]

3. I'm told that having "O" (the letter) intermixed with zeroes confuse them too...

To the point Colorado is reviewing their use of both character and numbers on plates. I would guess other states are too after some false arrests have resulted?