{"id":748964,"date":"2026-10-15T03:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/flock-ceo-defends-surveillance-technology-amid-national-backlash-we-shouldnt-pause-progress\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T03:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:50:20","slug":"flock-ceo-defends-surveillance-technology-amid-national-backlash-we-shouldnt-pause-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/flock-ceo-defends-surveillance-technology-amid-national-backlash-we-shouldnt-pause-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Flock CEO defends surveillance technology amid national backlash: &#8216;We shouldn&#8217;t pause progress&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6aec9ca3b0c36\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6aec9ca3b0c36\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/flock-ceo-defends-surveillance-technology-amid-national-backlash-we-shouldnt-pause-progress\/#CEO_%E2%80%98Flock_is_far_from_perfect\" >CEO: \u2018Flock is far from perfect\u2019<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flock\u2019s founder and CEO Garrett Langley doesn\u2019t think the risks of introducing surveillance <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> at scale outweigh the rewards. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn\u2019t pause progress,\u201d Langley said, speaking on stage during a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the interview, the controversial founder of the surveillance maker of license plate cameras and other recording devices deflected hard questions about the criticism Flock now faces \u2014 which has since led to cancelled contracts and even layoffs. Instead, Langley tended to respond to questions with anecdotes from conversations with police chiefs and city leaders across the United States, and tales of the supposed numerous crimes Flock has solved, rather than offer tangible solutions to people\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In doing so, Langley positioned Flock as an advance in technology that was somewhat inevitable. He stressed that if people wanted to live in a better society \u2014 that is, one with reduced crime \u2014 they would have to offer up their privacy in return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A similar argument about the trade-offs and rewards could be made for AI, which is marketed to the public as vastly improving our lives, automating tedious tasks, and making things more convenient. The flip side is the cost of sharing everything about ourselves with the makers of the AI agents themselves \u2014 and the possibility of the destruction of humanity, according to some.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s no surprise that the AI backlash shares some overlap with Flock. Much like AI, Flock is a technology that some feel has been forced upon the public without their consent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Langley, this is just the nature of progress, he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTechnology, at its core, in its definition, is just doing things better. It\u2019s not doing things perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cDriverless cars, I think, is a fair analogy. Driverless cars, I think, are definitively safer than human drivers. And when there\u2019s one accident, I don\u2019t think the answer is to shut down driverless cars. The answer is to say, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s talk about how we prevent more accidents in the future\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But driverless car makers don\u2019t shrug their shoulders at crashes; the companies pause their fleets and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ly fixes. Flock, meanwhile, seems to wrestle as a company with understanding when it\u2019s the company\u2019s responsibility to intervene. From Langley\u2019s answers, it\u2019s clear that the ethics around how Flock should be used is a decision he would much rather leave up to others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t want to tell city leaders how to do their job,\u201d he noted. \u201cWe will provide recommendations, we\u2019ll provide defaults, but we\u2019re going to minimize the number of mandated features, functions, and policies,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ceo-flock-is-far-from-perfect\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"CEO_%E2%80%98Flock_is_far_from_perfect\"><\/span>CEO: \u2018Flock is far from perfect\u2019<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the many rebuttals to his critics that Langley raised during the interview was the idea that misinformation about Flock had led to some of its customers\u2019 cancellations. For instance, he referenced a time when a customer ended their contract because they believed the devices performed facial recognition. While Flock cameras do not have facial recognition, they do have <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars\/\">the ability to detect and track people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Langley also spent a fair amount of time admonishing those who think his technology, or any technology, should be perfect, attributing the quote to some unnamed community leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was describing that, too often as a society we judge technology not on how it compares to the past, but how it compares to perfect. And Flock is far from perfect; I\u2019m far from perfect \u2014 I\u2019ve made plenty of mistakes,\u201d Langley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another area of pushback was in positioning Flock as a more effective form of policing, and one that allowed police departments to do more with reduced staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you look at where policing has gone over the last decade, but particularly post-COVID, law enforcement employment is declining rapidly. I think about a place like San Francisco, and there\u2019s hundreds of open positions. They will probably never be filled,\u201d he said, positioning Flock as the tech that would fill in those gaps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But pressed about abuse and the invasiveness of his company\u2019s surveillance technology, Langley had no substantive answers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think if the idea is to curb abuse, I think there\u2019s a way to do that that doesn\u2019t disrupt the legal system, that doesn\u2019t disrupt the efficacy and flow of a police department,\u201d Langley said, without spelling out what those ideas were.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For Langley, those seem to be matters of secondary importance, because his belief in Flock as a public good is so strong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think one of the unfortunate consequences of building a consequential company is this is the price you pay, and I think it\u2019s worth it because there\u2019s millions and millions of people who have a better life today because [of] Flock,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd clearly we\u2019ve made our fair share of mistakes, and there\u2019s some folks who disagree with what we do, but it\u2019s worth it because one day they might be a victim,\u201d Langley added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/10\/14\/flock-ceo-defends-surveillance-technology-amid-national-backlash-we-shouldnt-pause-progress\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Flock\u2019s founder and CEO Garrett Langley doesn\u2019t think the risks of introducing surveillance technology at scale outweigh the rewards. \u201cIf we want to live in a society where, if you commit a crime, you have a higher probability of being held accountable, we shouldn\u2019t pause progress,\u201d Langley said, speaking on stage during a panel at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[15047,150423,52711,72287],"class_list":["post-748964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-privacy","tag-flock","tag-hardware","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}