Victory! Flock Ends Rollout of Audio “Distress Detection” of Human Voices

Flock Safety, the surveillance vendor best known for its sprawling network of automated license plate readers, is shelving a feature that would have used its acoustic microphones to listen for sounds of human distress. As EFF Deeplinks tells it, the company said Friday that after community consultation it decided to remove the so-called Distress Detection tool, which early advertisements said would scan cities for screaming. Digital rights advocates had warned the feature could summon armed police to ordinary loud moments on the street and might run afoul of state eavesdropping laws in some places. EFF calls the reversal a win, while cautioning that the underlying gunshot-detection microphones stay in place and remain controversial.

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