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On April 10, 2025, 404 Media reported that Flock Safety, the company behind a sprawling network of fixed automatic license plate readers, pitched a proposal to turn hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers into a mobile extension of its surveillance system. The plan, detailed in a company presentation obtained via a public records request in Georgia, aimed to equip driver vehicles with dashcams capable of scanning license plates along their routes, effectively supplementing Flock's existing pole-mounted cameras. The document was shared with 404 Media by a Georgia resident after Flock presented it to the state's attorney general's office.
The proposed partnership centered on Nexar, a dashcam manufacturer whose devices are already marketed to rideshare drivers and commuters. According to 404 Media's Joseph Cox, who broke the story, the presentation describes a plan to integrate Nexar's dashcams into Flock's data ecosystem, allowing the company to capture plate data from moving vehicles. The document reportedly outlines a network that would draw on roughly 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and other delivery devices, in addition to the existing coverage from businesses and homeowners' associations across Georgia. 404 Media had previously uncovered the planned partnership through separate sourcing last year, and this newly obtained document shows Flock was actively marketing the arrangement to prospective customers around the same period.
Flock Safety told 404 Media that the Nexar deal was never actually put into place. However, Cox's reporting emphasizes that the presentation demonstrates the company's ambitions to scale its surveillance reach beyond fixed infrastructure. It remains unclear whether Uber, Lyft, or their drivers would have known their vehicles were collecting this data, as the presentation does not detail any opt-in or consent mechanism for drivers. Nexar, Uber, and Lyft did not respond to 404 Media's requests for comment.
The proposal is part of Flock Safety's broader push into new data sources. Earlier this year, 404 Media reported on a security breach that exposed a large trove of Nexar customer footage, including footage near sensitive military installations. The outlet also covered a separate effort—later abandoned—by Flock to build a tool that linked license plates to individuals using leaked information. Additionally, Cox cited 404 Media's reporting on a similar arrangement involving BusPatrol, a company that outfits school buses with cameras and shares resulting data with police. These incidents highlight a pattern of growth that privacy advocates say could erode civil liberties.
The timing of the presentation is notable: it was pitched to the Georgia Attorney General's office, suggesting that Flock was seeking either government endorsement or a regulatory green light for the expansion. While the state attorney general's office has not publicly commented on the proposal, the document's release through a public records request indicates that the plan was formally considered. Privacy experts, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have long warned that such mobile surveillance networks could turn gig workers into unwitting data collectors, with little transparency or accountability. The lack of driver awareness, combined with the potential for police to access plate data in real time, raises concerns about
