News Summary

Flock, a company specializing in automatic license plate readers and AI-powered cameras, has been found to employ overseas workers through Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms. This has raised concerns about the sensitive nature of the footage being accessed and reviewed. Flock’s cameras, present in thousands of US communities, enable law enforcement to track vehicles and, in some cases, people, without warrants. This practice has led to lawsuits from organizations like the ACLU. The exposed training panel revealed that many of the annotators are based in the Philippines, working on tasks that include categorizing vehicle features and transcribing license plates.