Technology
Flock surveillance camera map taken down following trademark complaint
A researcher took down a site mapping over 300,000 devices after a takedown notice sent on Flock's behalf
The short version
- Cybersecurity researcher Joshua Michael's map website, FlockSurveillance.org, went offline after vendor Doppel filed a trademark infringement complaint claiming to represent surveillance firm Flock.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
- The portal relied on an internal database snapshot from December 2025 detailing 335,701 device locations, well above the 120,000 cameras Flock publicly acknowledged operating.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
- Michael obtained the location data via an open access token on Flock's servers, though Flock maintained it never suffered an information breach.[Hacker News]
- Michael expressed concern that if this trademark claim holds up, it could prompt similar takedown efforts against other surveillance transparency projects like DeFlock.[Jalopnik]
Key facts
- Doppel, acting on Flock's behalf, filed a trademark infringement notice against Joshua Michael's FlockSurveillance.org, leaving the site unavailable by September 28.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
- Archived records from Michael's site cataloged 335,701 device entries as of December 2025, including 175,269 Falcon LPR cameras, 44,116 Wing PTZ cameras, and 27,341 Raven Audio sensors.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
- Flock has publicly claimed to operate over 120,000 cameras across 49 states, compared to crowdsourced estimates of around 143,000 by DeFlock and over 170,000 cameras shown on Michael's map.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
- The data was extracted after Michael found an unauthenticated access token on Flock's infrastructure allowing queries to ArcGIS; Flock later resolved the issue following Michael's January 2026 writeup.[Hacker News]
- Flock maintained in a post that its cloud platform never suffered a breach or leak, a statement Michael characterized as either an intentional transparency failure or an undetected security lapse.[Hacker News]
What remains uncertain
- Whether Doppel's trademark claim will withstand legal scrutiny or force permanent removal of independent public surveillance maps remains unresolved.[Hacker News · Jalopnik]
Sources
Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.