Say More Look Up Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Mashable Selects In My Bag AI at School Safety Net Versus Trending Now All Series Sanders teams up with Democratic lawmakers to stop the government from using automated license plate readers. Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes.

AI at School Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Look Up Say More Safety Net Versus Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age All Series Beyond Flock itself, testimony raised harder questions about police accountability, data security and a decade-old industry. Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and . Flock Safety, the largest U.S. seller of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, continues to draw national scrutiny.

Look Up Versus Say More Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices All Series The surveillance is apparently offering a generous severance package. Anna Iovine is the associate editor of features at Mashable. Previously, as the sex and relationships reporter, she covered topics ranging from dating apps to pelvic pain. Before Mashable, Anna was a social editor at VICE and freelanced for publications such as Slate and the Columbia Journalism Review. Follow her on Instagram .

As dozens of cities end contracts for its controversial license plate readers, Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program, WIRED has learned. Flock Safety announced a voluntary employee separation program on Friday, offering a "generous" severance package to those who want to leave amid growing backlash against the surveillance technology company, according to an internal email shared with WIRED. Applications for Flock's voluntary severance program opened Friday, and employees have until October 2 to decide whether to leave the company. Flock expects to grant buyouts to the majority of workers who apply, according to the email. People familiar with the program but not authorized to discuss it publicly say they believe that a significant number of the startup's roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart.

Versus Say More Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable Selects Creator Playbook In My Bag Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices All Series Everyday people have dug up contracts, questioned data access, and persuaded some towns to cancel their Flock deals. Olivia Tauber is the deputy editor of digital culture, covering creators, media, movies, beauty, and more. Based in New York, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Cut, Teen Vogue, Complex, and Interview Magazine. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from NYU and a Bachelor's from the University of Michigan. She also runs Fan Mail, a weekly pop-culture newsletter.

Flock Once Touted Its Cameras as'Made in the USA.' Now It's Not So Clear Flock reveals little about where its license plate readers are assembled, but the answer could have geopolitical and cybersecurity implications. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has said the company made its first license plate cameras in his Atlanta home, permanently scratching his dining table with drill marks. A decade later, where the company assembles its signature--and fiercely debated --product has become more of a mystery. For years, Flock touted publicly that its devices were produced in the United States. But more recent marketing materials from the company reviewed by WIRED no longer specify where its cameras come from. One US manufacturer that previously identified Flock as a customer quietly removed a mention of the company from its website earlier this year as public backlash against the company's surveillance technology grew.

Mashable Selects Creator Playbook Look Up Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more In My Bag Say More Trending Now Back to School Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net All Series Hackers pulled a Flock camera off a pole, cracked its encryption, and revealed exactly how it tracks vehicles and people. Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and . As anti-surveillance activists around the country have taken to physically tearing down Flock cameras and automatic license-plate readers, one hacking group decided destruction wasn't enough.

A hacker collective pulled down a Flock camera and dumped its data. The files included thousands of videos and logs showing that the device captured 1.6 million images of 50,000 vehicles in 21 days. Hackers ripped down a Flock camera above a roadway, made a near-complete copy of the data stored inside it, and shared the files with 404 Media and WIRED, revealing in new detail how exactly Flock Safety's cameras track the movements of both vehicles and people . The hackers say they are also publishing details on how they managed to obtain the software, in the hopes that other people may copy them. The breach provides an unprecedented look inside a system that Flock has described as protected by on-device encryption .

A new bipartisan effort in Congress to rein in automated license plate readers takes a page from the national drinking age: Comply, or risk losing federal highway funding. A bipartisan pair of US lawmakers tell WIRED they plan to introduce legislation today that would strip federal funding from states that fail to restrict the use of Flock cameras and other automated license plate readers. The devices, which help police track the location of vehicles tied to crimes, have become the subject of nationwide backlash in recent months over more nefarious uses by officers. The No FLOCK Act--for Federal License-Plate Observation and Camera Keeping--directs the US secretary of transportation to withhold 10 percent of annual financial support due to states for highways, roads, and bridges if it fails to ban Flock and similar devices for all but five use cases. Congressmen Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat representing Chicago suburbs, and Michael Cloud, a Republican whose Texas district includes Corpus Christi, are cosponsoring the bill.

A new mod lets you smash and shoot Flock's automatic license plate readers around the fictional Los Santos. People are not happy about Flock Safety's automated license plate readers and the cops that allegedly misuse them . If you're one of those ALPR-haters, you can now take out your rage in the video game by installing Grand Theft Automated License Plate Reader, a mod built by artist Morry Kolman. Players can smash and shoot down the cameras and get paid $600 for each one they destroy, which Kolman priced based on a teardown of a Flock Falcon Flex Camera by the Iowa-based civil liberties group Eyes Off of Cedar Rapids. The in-game cameras log every time a player destroys and drives by one, and players can render a photo album of their interactions.