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AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents

Joe Wilkins

created: Dec. 7, 2025, 5:45 p.m. | updated: Dec. 17, 2025, 5:26 p.m.

What does it take to become the most successful AI surveillance company in 2025? In US towns and cities, Flock cameras maintained by local businesses and municipal agencies form centralized surveillance networks for local police. They constantly scan for car license plates, as well as pedestrians, who are categorized based on their clothing, and possibly by factors like gender and race. In a growing number of cases, local police are using Flock to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surveil minority communities. Amazon’s cashier-free “just walk out” stores, for example, were really just gig workers watching American shoppers from India.

2 months ago: Futurism