Covert Ops
Whenever you park at a Home Depot, your presence is tracked on the premises using Flock Safety’s automated license plate recognition cameras. These cameras capture and process data and feed it directly to a database that’s accessible to law enforcement across the U.S.
The issue stems from the policies the retailer has in place for operating the cameras, who gets the data, and who gets to act on the information in said data. That, and the questionable reputation of Flock Safety, a company that has been involved in cases of unauthorized data sharing.
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Home Depot’s Not Doing Enough
A 57-page complaint alleges that Home Depot violates California law with its large-scale security camera systems. These systems are capable of capturing vehicle license plates, makes, models, colors, and other “distinguishing features.” Time stamps and location information are also logged alongside vehicle information and sent to a centralized database accessible nationwide to law enforcement.
Home Depot has a right to “home defense,” but only if it uses the information it gathers correctly and for the intended purpose. According to the class action lawsuit, Home Depot has failed to comply with several requirements of California’s Automated License Plate Recognition Privacy Act, which includes: failure to identify the title of the official custodian of the automated camera system, failure to define the data retention period, and allowing “open-ended” law enforcement with virtually no restrictions on federal, out-of-state agencies, or immigration enforcement.
Furthermore, Home Depot hasn’t identified the measures it’s taking to ensure system accuracy and error correction, nor has it defined the training policies in place for its employees and contractors who operate the system.
Other Concerns
Apart from the violation or failure to comply with additional requirements under California Law, the filing also notes that the data could hold value to the retailer, as it could be sold to data brokers for targeted advertising and consumer profiling, the lawsuit claims.
The allegation comes from historical data surrounding Flock Safety, Home Depot’s system provider. As the suit goes, Flock secretly re-enabled “nationwide” data-sharing settings for its cameras deployed by state law enforcement agencies in some locations, without prior authorization.
The act exposed vehicle data that wasn’t approved. Because of this, the integrity of Flock’s data privacy is called into question. Plus, the system has been known to misread incidents. At least 12 were mentioned in the lawsuit wherein individuals were wrongfully identified and stopped, arrested, or attacked by police dogs.
Brian Iselin
The FAQs
However, Homie Depot has issued a list of frequently asked questions regarding immigration activity in its parking lots. In which the company stated a few things like “The Home Depot is not involved in [immigration enforcement] operations, and [it] does not coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or other federal agencies regarding them. Also, its parking lots are considered publicly accessible, so law enforcement doesn’t need a permit to enter.
The Home Depot also admits that its cameras are used for “the purpose of detecting and preventing theft and protecting the safety of our customers and associates.” The company then stated that “[The Home Depot does not] grant access to our license plate readers to federal law enforcement.” Sure, Home Depot doesn’t grant access, but what about Flock Safety?
The Class Action
According to the source, despite Flock Safety’s questionable practices, Home Depot has yet to make a change. In other words, the company is still operating its automated camera systems in its parking lots and hasn’t reported any changes to its data collection and sharing policies at this time.
The license plate reader class action lawsuit will represent all individuals whose vehicles were captured by Home Depot’s automated license plate reader systems, or its vendors, at any California retail location from the date that the Flock Safety cameras were installed to the present.
