Proton hosts Flock camera map after legal threats to its creator
The privacy-focused company has put a worldwide copy of the camera-location map online, while warning that its data is only a snapshot from late 2025.
Proton is hosting a worldwide copy of the Flock camera map after its original creator, security researcher Joshua Michael, faced legal pressure from Flock Safety. The map lets people search for automatic licence-plate reader locations, although Proton stresses that the underlying data is a historical snapshot rather than a live view of the network.12
Tom's Hardware reports that Michael built the original map from leaked Flock data and received a cease-and-desist letter. The original site is restricted to users in the United States, whereas Proton's version is intended to be accessible worldwide.1
What Proton is hosting
Proton's official map allows visitors to search by US ZIP code and inspect camera locations recorded in the dataset. The company says the map helps people understand who may be recording vehicles in their area and contact local officials where appropriate.2
The technology behind the controversy is automated licence-plate recognition, or ALPR. Flock cameras photograph passing vehicles, record the plate, time and location, and can also log a vehicle's make, model, colour, dents and bumper stickers. Those records are stored in Flock's cloud, where police departments and other customers can search and share them.2
A snapshot, not a live network
Proton says its map data comes from Joshua Michael's independent research and is a snapshot from December 2025. Cameras installed or removed since then will not appear, so the map should not be treated as a definitive real-time directory.2
The dispute arrives amid wider concerns about ALPR use. Tom's Hardware cites cases in which police officers allegedly misused Flock cameras to stalk romantic partners, alongside an incident involving mistaken identity. Those cases do not establish that every use is abusive, but they explain why access, oversight and retention rules matter.1
Our opinion
Proton's decision is useful because it makes a complicated surveillance network visible to the public. The caveat is just as important: late-2025 data can show the scale and location of the issue without telling anyone exactly what is operating today. Used as a transparency tool rather than a live safety guarantee, it gives communities a clearer starting point for asking who can access vehicle records and how long those records are kept.