Even if you truly believe the company you work for is capable of doing this, perhaps read the room a bit before offering up this sort of insane assertion to a journalist:

Langley offers a prediction: In less than 10 years, Flock’s cameras, airborne and fixed, will eradicate almost all crime in the U.S. 

That would be Flock Safety CEO (and co-founder) Garrett Langley speaking to Thomas Brewster of Forbes. Flock Safety has grown a lot over the past few years, following paths paved by Amazon’s doorbell surveillance camera acquisition, Ring, and other upstarts in the public/private surveillance mesh network field.

Like Ring, Flock has sold a bunch of products to regular people, starting with the people most likely to have discretionary income and the desire to wield that against other humans beings: homeowners associations and residents of gated communities.

Like Ring, Flock has allowed racists to convert their bigotry into action. And it has also allowed (and encouraged) law enforcement agencies to treat privately-owned cameras as extensions of their own surveillance networks.

Not content to add license plate reader tech to cameras owned by non-cops, Flock now wants to fill the air with another mesh network of public/private ownership via its latest offering:

Since its founding in 2017, Flock, which was valued at $7.5 billion in its most recent funding round, has quietly built a network of more than 80,000 cameras pointed at highways, thoroughfares and parking lots across the U.S. They record not just the license plate numbers of the cars that pass them, but their make and distinctive features—broken windows, dings, bumper stickers. Langley estimates its cameras help solve 1 million crimes a year. Soon they’ll help solve even more. In August, Flock’s cameras will take to the skies mounted on its own “made in Amer­ica” drones. 

Sure, Flock and its CEO may be worth billions. But that doesn’t actually make Langley smart. It just makes him opportunistic enough to take advantage of perpetual false narratives (some perpetuated by Flock itself!) about crime rates. Some people say “Orwellian.” Others, like Garrett Langley, just say “year-over-year growth.”

“I’ve talked to plenty of activists who think crime is just the cost of modern society. I disagree,” Langley says. “I think we can have a crime-free city and civil liberties. . . . We can have it all.” In municipalities in which Flock is deployed, he adds, the average criminal—those between 16 and 24 committing nonviolent crime—“will most likely get caught.”

And there it is: a person in the surveillance tech business refusing to discuss civil liberty concerns honestly, choosing instead to wave them away with a statement that indicates anything that stands in the way of Flock’s continued profitability (or the pipe dream of removing any and all crime and/or 16-24-year-old citizens from US streets) isn’t worth his attention.

But maybe he should be paying more attention to the law, especially the stuff about civil liberties. His company has already been accused of ignoring local laws while selling and/or installing cameras. And Flock recently got dragged back into whatever the opposite of the limelight is earlier this year, when it was discovered Texas cops were able to access Flock license plate reader data all over the nation as they tried to locate a Texas resident who had apparently left the state to obtain an abortion — something that’s illegal in Texas.

Flock didn’t have much to say about this turn of events at the time. And the officers who performed the search claimed their only interest was in locating this person to ensure she was safe, even as they work for a state whose anti-abortion laws make extremely clear that the state government doesn’t actually care about the safety of women.

Meanwhile, in Illinois, Flock is rapidly backpedaling on its information sharing agreements after multiple lawmakers alleged the company broke state data privacy laws by allowing pretty much any government agency from anywhere in the nation to access Flock ALPR data.

Flock Safety, whose cameras are mounted in more than 4,000 communities nationwide, put a hold last week on pilot programs with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection and its law enforcement arm, Homeland Security Investigations, according to a statement by its founder and CEO, Garrett Langley.

Among officials in other jurisdictions, Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias raised concerns. He announced Monday that an audit found Customs and Border Protection had accessed Illinois data, although he didn’t say that the agency was seeking immigration-related information. A 2023 law the Democrat pushed bars sharing license plate data with police investigating out-of-state abortions or undocumented immigrants.

“This sharing of license plate data of motorists who drive on Illinois roads is a clear violation of the state law,” Giannoulias said in a statement. “This law, passed two years ago, aimed to strengthen how data is shared and prevent this exact thing from happening,”

That has led to contracts being cancelled in the state of Illinois, which certainly isn’t going to contribute to Langley’s fantasies of “ending crime” via massively profitable mass surveillance systems sold by his company.

Oak Park voted to terminate its contract with Flock earlier this month.

Tuesday, following the state’s audit, the city of Evanston did the same, saying in a statement, in part:

“The findings of the Illinois Secretary of State’s audit, combined with Flock’s admission that it failed to establish distinct permissions and protocols to ensure local compliance while running a pilot program with federal users, are deeply troubling. As a result, the City has deactivated the cameras and issued a termination notice to Flock, effective September 26, 2025.”

And it’s not just limited to a state with some of the most robust privacy laws in the nation. It’s also happening in Texas, the same state that kicked this backlash off when officers decided it was okay to use Flock’s system to try to locate someone who might have been considering violating the state’s anti-abortion laws.

Austin organizers turned out to rebuke the city’s misguided contract with Flock Safety— and won. This successful pushback from the community means at the end of the month Austin police will no longer be able to use the surveillance network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) across the city.

It’s pretty rich to claim you can stop all crime when you can’t even stop breaking the law or enabling users of your tech to break the law. What’s listed above are the words of a salesman, not a person truly concerned about crime rates or making communities safer. It thrives on the American constant of believing crime rates are really worse than they actually are. And it depends on the wealth of people and governments who also feel civil liberties are privileges that should only be enjoyed by the richest (and, obviously, whitest) people in the nation. Everyone else should just learn to accept their loss of rights and privacy gratefully, for the good of the nation.

Today's links

• Wallet voting: On the uses and abuses of consumerism.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Microsoft copyright crackdown against Russian dissidents; Corbyn wins Labour leadership; Bill Gates' monopolism; TiVo won't record DRM shows; HDCP leaks; Puking sink; Mr Gotcha v covid.
• Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

Wallet voting (permalink)

You cannot vote with your wallet. Or rather, you can, but you will lose that vote. Wallet-votes always go to the people with the thickest wallets, and statistically, that is not you.

Margaret Thatcher tried to get us to believe that "there is no such thing as society." She wanted everyday people to abandon the idea of having a shared destiny, to throw away any notion of solidarity as an answer to social problems. Despite the fact that Thatcher's own backers happily formed cartels and cabals, from the Mount Pellerin Society to the Heritage Foundation, Thatcher insisted that everyday people should fight their battles alone.

If you want higher wages, don't join a union – just go demand a higher wage from your boss. If you want lower rents, don't demand rent controls, just petition your landlord for a discount. If none of this stuff works (this stuff rarely works), then you are out of luck. "The market" exists to do "price discovery" and you've just discovered the price of your labor (less than you need to survive) and the cost of your home (more than you can afford). You voted with your wallet, and you lost. As Thatcher was fond of saying, "there is no alternative."

This has been our framework for change for the past 50 years. It's like we've had a collective lobotomy and have forgotten the way that actual change comes about. Change happens when solidaristic groups of everyday people – unions, political movements – directly confront politicians and power-brokers and demand change. Your boss won't equitably share the fruits of your labor unless they fear that all the workers on the jobsite will shut down the shop. Your politicians won't do the bidding of everyday people – who can't shower them in cash – unless they fear that they will have their offices blockaded, their homes picketed, and their seats primaried.

Rather than demanding this kind of change, we're supposed to vote with our wallets, making a fetish out of our personal consumption choices and scolding others as "lazy" or "cheap" if they don't quit Facebook or stop shopping at Walmart. This isn't just ineffective, it's counterproductive. Refusing to form solidaristic bonds with people suffering in the same way as you because they buy things you disapprove of means that you can't attain the solidarity needed to make the real change you're seeking.

Shopping harder is no way to save the planet or your neighbors. Individual actions do not provoke systemic change. For that, we need collective action. Join your local tenants' union, your local DSA chapter, your local Electronic Frontier Alliance group:

https://efa.eff.org/allies

And also! Make consumption choices that improve your life and the lives of people you love. Support your local bookstore, buy online from libro.fm and bookshop.org – not because this will break Amazon's monopoly power (for that we will need unionization, antitrust, and tax enforcement), but because when you shop at those stores, you make a difference to the lives of the people who operate those stores, who pay decent wages and don't maim their warehouse workers.

Go to your local family-owned grocer instead of the union-busting monopolist, because they're nice people, the food is good, and they pitch in to help their community, rather than draining its finances and lobbying for tax exemptions.

Buy from artists and creators you like online, join their crowdfunders and Patreons, get their music on Bandcamp – not because this will shatter the hegemony of the five giant publishers, four giant studios, three giant labels, two giant app companies and one giant ebook and audiobook store – but because it will help people whose art you love pay their rent and buy groceries.

Get off Facebook, Insta and Twitter and join Mastodon and/or Bluesky – not because you can disenshittify the internet by switching to federated social media, but because you, personally can have a less shitty time if you get away from the zuckermuskian rot economy.

Do all this stuff – to the extent you can. Support your local bookstore, but don't forego buying and reading books you love because the store is a two hour drive and you only get there once a month. Support your local grocer, but if they don't have the ingredients you need for the special dinner you're making for your friends or your picky kids, then go to Safeway or Whole Foods or Albertsons. Buy art from artists where you can, but if there's a movie you want to stream and the only way to get it is on Prime or Youtube, pay the $3.99. Get a Mastodon or Bluesky account, but if your friends or customers or audience won't move with you, then reach them where they are.

Above all, don't isolate yourself. As Zephyr Teachout writes in Break 'Em Up, when you miss the picket at the Amazon warehouse because you've been driving around for hours looking for an independent stationery story to buy markers and cardboard for a protest sign, Jeff Bezos wins.

Give your comrades grace. Don't call them scabs because they bought McDonald's for their kids after a long shift. Don't turn your nose up at them because they bought a shirt at Zara. Give yourself grace. The damage you do to the cause by flying home for Thanksgiving, using a plastic straw, or using proprietary software is immeasurably infinitesimal. And if you're connected to your family, well hydrated, and get your tech needs met, you will have more energy and resources to throw into the fight for systemic change.

Make individual choices that make your life better. Take collective action to make society better. Your individual hand-wringing about whether to buy organic produce or get a Frappuccino just makes you less effective. It's not a boycott. A boycott is planned, social and solidaristic. It's something lots of people do together. Boycotts work (which is why génocidaires hate the BDS movement). Scabbing isn't buying something from someone unethical. Scabbing is crossing a picket line or breaking a boycott.

Margaret Thatcher's crude trick – "there is no such thing as society" – fools fewer and fewer of us every day. Doing the right thing isn't a matter of personal orthodoxy – it's a matter of movement tactics. We won't cure enshittification by zealously pursuing an approved list of correct merchants and products – we'll do so by changing the policy landscape so that enshittifiers sink and disenshittifiers rise:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/31/unsatisfying-answers/#systemic-problems

If you think buying something different, or shopping somewhere else, will make your comrades' lives better, then sure, by all means, give them a helpful tip! But don't nag them for shopping wrong. The best reason to suggest a consumption choice is to improve the life of someone you care about.

And speaking of which: this is my last blog post before my Kickstarter to pre-sell the audiobook, ebook and hardcover of my next book, Enshittification, winds down. I don't have a Patreon, I don't paywall my work or sell ads. I support my family by selling books, and the Kickstarter is the way to buy the books that does me the most good – I get the most money per book this way, and it does more to help the books get on the bestseller lists:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/enshittification-the-drm-free-audiobook

So I'd love it if you'd consider backing the campaign. But also: don't worry about it if this isn't the easiest way for you to read my work. If you're short on cash, or you can't use Kickstarter, or you prefer the library, get the books some other way. That's fine. Your individual consumption choices can make a difference to me, personally; but the way we will change society is by joining and participating in a movement. I'd much rather live in a better world than live in this one with an extra $20 or $30 from your book purchases in my bank account.

Hey look at this (permalink)

• YIMBYs on the Cusp of Major Victory in California https://prospect.org/infrastructure/housing/2025-09-13-yimbys-cusp-major-victory-california/

• Why You Should Spend Less Time with Your Kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whaesnYloMQ&t=10s

• Political Violence Is Wrong. Charlie Kirk Didn’t Think So https://jacobin.com/2025/09/kirk-posobiec-political-violence-far-right/

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago TiVo won’t save certain shows or allow moving them https://memex.craphound.com/2005/09/13/tivo-wont-save-certain-shows-or-allow-moving-them/

#15yrsago HDCP master-key leaks, possible to make unrestricted Blu-Ray recorders https://www.engadget.com/2010-09-14-hdcp-master-key-supposedly-released-unlocks-hdtv-copy-protect.html

#15yrsago Kim Stanley Robinson on science, justice and science fiction https://gerrycanavan.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/science-justice-science-fiction-an-interview-with-kim-stanley-robinson/

#10yrsago 27-year-olds: don’t forget your D10K party!https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/13/27-year-olds-dont-forget-your-d10k-party/

#10yrsago Empty Epson “professional” inkjet cartridges are still 20% fullhttps://petapixel.com/2015/09/11/this-is-how-much-ink-the-epson-9900-printer-wastes/

#10yrsago Chest-height puking toilet in a nightclub bathroom https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/3kq88k/in_a_local_club_they_have_this_awesome_toilet_for/

#10yrsago MIT and Boston U open legal clinic for innovative tech projects https://web.archive.org/web/20151005073023/https://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/the-story-behind-mit-and-boston-universitys-new-legal-clinic-for-student-innovation

#15yrsago Russian cops use excuse of pirated Microsoft products to raid dissidents, newspapers, and environmentalist groups https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/europe/12raids.html

#10yrsago My novel “Walkaway” will hit shelves in 2017 https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/68042-book-deals-week-of-september-14-2015.html

#10yrsago NYPD cop who beat up tennis star James Blake has a long, violent rapsheet https://web.archive.org/web/20150913062523/https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/tackled-james-blake-sued-4-times-excessive-force-article-1.2356691

#10yrsago Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership contest and vows 'fightback' https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/12/uk-labour-party-elects-its-first-left-wing-leader-in-more-than-20-years/

#5yrsago Bill Gates's monopolistic mask-off moment https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/12/whats-a-murder/#miros-tilde-1

#5yrsago Mr Gotcha v covid https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/13/theory-of-change/#mr-gotcha

#5yrsago How to buy doubt https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/13/theory-of-change/#surkov-koch

#5yrsago How the Attack Surface audiobook can reform Audible https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/13/theory-of-change/#avalanche

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Ithaca: Enshittification at Autumn Leaves Books, Sept 13
  https://www.autumnleavesithaca.com/event-details/enshittification-why-everything-got-worse-and-what-to-do-about-it

• Ithaca: Radicalized Q&A (Cornell), Sept 16
  https://events.cornell.edu/event/radicalized-qa-with-author-cory-doctorow

• Ithaca: Communication Power, Policy, and Practice (Cornell), Sept 18
  https://events.cornell.edu/event/policy-provocations-a-conversation-about-communication-power-policy-and-practice

• Ithaca: A Reverse-Centaur's Guide to Being a Better AI Critic (Cornell), Sept 18
  https://events.cornell.edu/event/2025-nordlander-lecture-in-science-public-policy

• NYC: Enshittification and Renewal (Cornell Tech), Sept 19
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/enshittification-and-renewal-a-conversation-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1563948454929

• NYC: Brooklyn Book Fair, Sept 21
  https://brooklynbookfestival.org/event/big-techs-big-heist-cory-doctorow-in-conversation-with-adam-becker/

• DC: Enshittification with Rohit Chopra (Politics and Prose), Oct 8
  https://politics-prose.com/cory-doctorow-10825

• NYC: Enshittification with Lina Khan (Brooklyn Public Library), Oct 9
  https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/cory-doctorow-discusses-central-library-dweck-20251009-0700pm

• New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12
  http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

• Chicago: Enshittification with Anand Giridharadas (Chicago Humanities), Oct 15
  https://www.oldtownschool.org/concerts/2025/10-15-2025-kara-swisher-and-cory-doctorow-on-enshittification/

• San Francisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
  https://app.gopassage.com/events/doctorow25

• Seattle: Enshittification and the Rot Economy, with Ed Zitron (Clarion West), Oct 22
  https://www.clarionwest.org/event/2025-deep-dives-cory-doctorow/

• Madrid: Conferencia EUROPEA 4D (Virtual), Oct 28
  https://4d.cat/es/conferencia/

• Miami: Enshittification at Books & Books, Nov 5
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1504647263469

Recent appearances (permalink)

• Nerd Harder! (This Week in Tech)
  https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1047

• Techtonic with Mark Hurst
  https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/155658

• Cory Doctorow DESTROYS Enshittification (QAA Podcast)
  https://soundcloud.com/qanonanonymous/cory-doctorow-destroys-enshitification-e338

Latest books (permalink)

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

Upcoming books (permalink)

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE AND SUBMITTED.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

A prominent US Senator has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft for “gross cybersecurity negligence,” citing the company’s continued use of an obsolete and vulnerable form of encryption that Windows uses by default.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) said an investigation his office conducted into the 2024 ransomware breach of the health care giant Ascension found that default use of the RC4 encryption cipher was a direct cause. The breach led to the theft of medical records of 5.6 million patients.

It's the second time in as many years that Wyden has used the word “negligence” to describe Microsoft's security practices.

Read full article

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