April 14, 2026
Delete me? Ask the cloud, not us
I wrote to Flock's privacy contact to opt out of their domestic spying program
Internet splits over Flock’s “we’re just the messenger” privacy dodge
TLDR: A Californian asked Flock Safety to erase his license-plate data; Flock said customers own it, not them. Commenters exploded: one side says that makes privacy law toothless, another says it’s like asking a cloud host to delete a client’s files, and others say complain to your city instead.
A California resident tried to tell Flock Safety to delete everything they have on him—license plate scans, car pics, the works—under the state’s privacy law (the CCPA). Flock replied with a corporate shrug and a misspelled name, saying they’re merely a “service provider,” and the real owners are their customers (often cities or neighborhoods). Translation to the comment section: “Go ask your city hall, not us.” Boom—drama ignited.
The top vibe? Outrage that a company collecting the data in the first place can refuse deletion. One user fumed that if this excuse flies, the law is useless. Others countered with the cloud analogy: asking Flock to erase data is like asking Amazon to delete your Tinder messages—wrong address, buddy. A third camp says the owners are municipalities, so take it up with them and start with deflock.org.
Commenters roasted the misspelled name (“Step 1 of trust: spell it right”), side‑eyed Flock’s “we only keep it 30 days… unless our customers choose longer” line, and memed the whole thing as “Big Brother as a Service.” The OP’s “For Science” experiment set off a classic internet cage match: Is Flock the baddie, or just the courier? Either way, the community is fired up and lawyering up—some literally.
Key Points
- •A California resident requested Flock Safety delete and stop collecting any data about him and his household under the CCPA.
- •Flock Safety declined to process the request directly, asserting it acts as a service provider/processor for its customers who control the data.
- •The company said it does not sell, publish, or exchange customers’ data for its own commercial purposes.
- •Flock stated LPRs capture images of publicly visible vehicle characteristics, not personal identifiers like names or addresses, for public safety purposes.
- •Flock indicated a default 30-day data retention policy with permanent deletion on a rolling basis, adjustable by customers per local laws or policies.