Stanford dropped Flock after campus pushback, and is replacing it with a different plate-reader vendor
Stanford ended its Flock service in late July after student criticism, and its nineteen campus cameras have been switched off and physically covered. They are being replaced with Genetec Cloudrunner units by early September. The stated reason for leaving was the one doing the most damage to Flock nationally: that it shared camera data with federal and out-of-state agencies without local permission. Stanford says the replacement holds images in the cloud for under an hour, moves them to a server the university controls, and deletes the cloud copy. This desk records it because it is a real loss for Flock, and it records it honestly because it is not a win for anyone who objects to plate readers as such. Nineteen cameras are coming down and nineteen are going up. If the objection was federal access, this may answer it; if the objection was being photographed entering campus, it changes the vendor and nothing else.
From the reporting
- Nineteen Flock cameras; service ended late July, hardware switched off and covered since.
- Replacement is Genetec Cloudrunner, due in place by early September.
- Stanford cites data sharing with federal and out-of-state law enforcement without local permission.
- Stated retention: under an hour in the cloud, then transfer to a Stanford-controlled server and deletion of the cloud copy.
- Recorded as a Flock loss, not as an end to plate reading on campus. Those are different outcomes.
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