In the wake of mass public surveillance with Flock and Axon cameras tracking cars and public spaces, more and more people are pushing back and have now turned the tables to surveil law enforcement. After a hacking group known as stegan0gram dismantled a Flock camera and copied its internal data, an activist group created its own tracking software, SparrowMap, to hold law enforcement accountable. Homeland Security is not pleased with people turning Flock surveillance cameras against the police and government officials, with the DHS reportedly monitoring activists developing these technologies and anyone else openly critical of the automatic license readers. However, SparrowMap is not illegal, as the system uses ARP technology to track police cars in real time, using publicly available road livestreams and footage provided by volunteers. The hackers pose the question: why destroy the cameras when they could reverse-engineer them and uncover the secrets of those spying on the public? The ultimate irony is that the government didn’t even consult people about whether they wanted to be surveilled. Yet, the second the citizens do the same thing to them, it suddenly becomes a problem.  

—Alexandra Miskewitz