Flock cameras are having a hard time identifying some objects and mistaking them for license plates.
But as the devices may be struggling to accomplish their most critical task, they seem to be identifying something else: people.
‘The detector cropped an American flag patch on the rider’s saddlebag as if it were a plate.’
Hackers recently ripped down a Flock license-plate reader camera that sat above a road, opened it up, and copied the data inside before giving the information to tech outlets.
What the data allegedly revealed is that software running on the device “explicitly detects people” as well as vehicles, license plates, and bicycles.
A joint report from Wired and 404 Media explained that through several weeks’ worth of logs, the Flock camera generated more than a million images.
Using a processor similar to that of a “midrange smartphone,” around 20 built-in apps on the camera’s processor handle a range of tasks like motion detection, taking pictures, uploading data, and receiving updates.
The outlets say that the device’s code showed approximately 28-100 photos are taken when something moves into view, but the camera uses different exposures to capture the license and the expanded environment before scanning the image and cropping what it believes to be the pertinent information. The data is then sent to Flock through the local cell phone network.
The camera itself allegedly does not identify the plate number, vehicle, model, etc.; those tasks allegedly take place on Flock’s servers.
At the same time, the current software allegedly “explicitly detects people” and records where they appear in the image and how confident it is that it is a person.
RELATED: Flock doesn’t care if you’re innocent
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
Wired’s analysis said that the camera’s logs had about 21 days of activity, during which it photographed more than 50,000 vehicles and generated 1.6 million images. This worked out to between 3,300 and 4,500 vehicles per day.
Problems arose with the camera’s inability to process its huge storage requests on-device, with the logs reportedly showing a massive 27,000 instances of “no space left on device” errors that show up when trying to save full-resolution images.
Tens of thousands of other related errors were noted as well, which came with crashes and reboots.
Perhaps disturbingly, the device’s code runs an operational check every two minutes to see if the camera is still running and logs the message “Who’s a good boy?!”
This was seen more than 12,000 times.
Other issues were reported with mistaken identification with bumper stickers, dealership frames, and other graphics that were recorded as license plates and cropped out of images for saving.
“In one video of a passing motorcycle, the detector cropped an American flag patch on the rider’s saddlebag as if it were a plate,” Wired wrote.
RELATED: Worse than Flock: Josh Hawley expands ‘unprecedented national surveillance’ investigation
Jean-François FORT/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images
As for the hackers/vandals/vigilantes, they answered as to why they didn’t simply destroy the camera: “Why just destroy them when we can reverse-engineer them and find the secrets of those spying on us?”
The hacker collective, which calls itself stegan0gram, also said it “liberated hardware in the field, disarmed them, and proceeded with reverse engineering of the cameras and associated solar equipment.”
Flock responded to the report by saying “the unauthorized removal and tampering of a Flock camera is illegal.”
“Flock takes security seriously and maintains a public Vulnerability Disclosure Policy for security researchers to report potential vulnerabilities directly to us. We received no report through that process, and based on the limited information provided, we do not have enough detail to assess the claims being made. If the individuals identified legitimate vulnerabilities, we encourage them to submit their technical findings through our vulnerability reporting process so our security team can review them and take any appropriate action,” the company added.
One hacker replied to this message by saying, “Being investigated is a legit concern and something we are trying to avoid. I’m sure our actions have attracted some attention as it is, but we are careful and try to keep a low profile.”
Flock did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
Wired and 404 Media also noted they found no evidence of facial-recognition capabilities in the Flock camera software beyond what is included in the Android operation system.
According to DeFlock, there are currently more than 140,000 license plate readers in the United States; 81% are run by Flock, 5% by Motorola.
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Flock, Android, Automated license plate recognition cameras, Tech