Earlier The Drive reported a police chief "had to direct his staff to disconnect the power cords from Flock cameras in Plymouth, Minnesota after Flock Safety ignored and failed to respond to the department's notice the city was canceling its service. "But in other instances Flock's gone and reinstalled cameras without permission," The Drive reported this week: On September 29th the city of Dayton, Minnesota posted a community update on its Facebook page alerting residents that Flock had installed and put into service two cameras against the City's direction without authorization... "The City notified Flock on September 18, 2026, that the program was on hold, and no work orders were to be completed. Unfortunately, the City's direction was not followed, and the camera was placed back into service without authorization." The statement continued and noted, "Following the report, City staff reviewed locations throughout the community to determine whether any additional cameras had been reinstalled, and one additional location was identified. The Police Department has been notified, and both cameras will be removed promptly...." The Minnesota cities of both St. Paul and Crystal told Kare 11 that they removed the Flock cameras themselves following their respective city council votes in August and September respectively. The cameras are stored and are still waiting to be picked up by Flock. Crystal Chief of Police Pete Underthun told Kare 11, "Once we made this decision, I personally went to the locations and removed the cameras and poles myself." Chief Underthun noted, "We are still working with the company to close out our contract and for them to pick the cameras up from our garage."

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Meta's smart glasses face new questions from two U.S. Senators, reports Gizmodo. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Markey "are requesting that Meta provide more information before Thanksgiving on whether it conducted detailed human rights due diligence and safety testing on the product before releasing it," reports Gizmodo. The Senators also requested information from Meta about " how it evaluated the privacy risks posed by the glasses, and what kinds of safeguards are currently in place." "Although Meta identified risks to bystander privacy and vulnerable populations before launching its glasses in 2021, it nevertheless launched a product tailor-made for invading the privacy of its users and bystanders," [the senators wrote in a letter Thursday...] The glasses have also been spotted on ICE agents during raids, and have raised potential surveillance concerns. The surveillance fears were even reportedly raised by the New York Police Department's counterterrorism unit in a memo issued earlier this year.... "Meta's own disclosures confirm that imagery processed through its glasses' visual AI features may be retained and used to train AI systems, including with the assistance of human reviewers," the senators' letter states, calling the practice an invasion of privacy. "Retaining that material for AI development, thereby extending the period during which it can be accessed, disclosed, or misused, exploits people's highly sensitive information for Meta's commercial benefit."

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