Flock CEO unveils new privacy policy: 'We're not Big Brother'

Controversial surveillance technology company Flock Safety has unveiled sweeping new privacy "guardrails," seemingly intended to quell growing unrest over its devices' presence across the country. Days prior, CEO Garrett Langley went on a media run to convince the public that the company was not the latest cog in a dystopian surveillance state, but rather a purveyor of public safety. "We’re not Big Brother," said CEO Garrett Langley. "We’re focused on protecting people." But many still wonder, if it looks like Big Brother, and it talks like Big Brother... Under the new policy, Flock will be adjusting its default data retention period from a 30 days to seven. Prior to this, Flock systems were automatically set to store an individual's registration and location information for a full month, but this can still be changed to longer or shorter periods according to state and local policy. The ACLU has previously recommended that data retention defaults be set to 48 hours. In addition, Flock will now require law enforcement agencies to use a case code that delineates a potential offense before searching the Flock database. Previously, this was an optional setting for Flock clients, and do