Boston Ends Contract With Flock Over Alleged Nationwide Data Sharing

The city of Boston has terminated its contract with Flock, a provider of automated surveillance technology, after officials said the company shared data on a nationwide basis in violation of the terms of their agreement, according to a report by Ars Technica.

City officials said their contract with Flock required the company to disable a "nationwide lookup" function that would allow data collected in Boston to be accessed or searched from outside the city or state. Despite this contractual requirement, officials said the feature remained enabled, according to the report.

Ars Technica reported that Boston's decision to end the contract followed the city's determination that Flock had not complied with the data-sharing restrictions it had agreed to. The report did not specify the exact type of surveillance data involved or the duration for which the nationwide lookup feature was reportedly active.

Flock's response to Boston's allegations was not detailed in the available reporting. It was not immediately clear whether other municipalities with similar contracts have raised comparable concerns.

The dispute highlights ongoing scrutiny of surveillance technology vendors' data-sharing practices and the extent to which municipal contracts can effectively restrict how collected data is used or accessed once deployed.