Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee
Flock Safety announced a voluntary employee separation program on Friday, offering a “generous” severance package to those who want to leave amid growing backlash against the surveillance technology company, according to an internal email shared with WIRED.
Applications for Flock’s voluntary severance program opened Friday, and employees have until October 2 to decide whether to leave the company. Flock expects to grant buyouts to the majority of workers who apply, according to the email. People familiar with the program but not authorized to discuss it publicly say they believe that a significant number of the startup’s roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart.
Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers amid growing frustration across the US about its sprawling network of license plate readers, which have raised concerns about privacy and misuse. In the last month, WIRED has documented officers allegedly abusing Flock to track former romantic partners and colleagues, exposed how widely some agencies share access to the system, shown how little is known about the manufacturing of the devices, and revealed in new detail how much information Flock’s cameras collect based on data from a dismantled Flock device.
https://www.wired.com/story/flock-is-offering-voluntary-buyouts-to-employees/Open linkView original on sh.itjust.works
4 replies
Sadly cities will just 'flock' to a different vendor who can do the same thing, but doesn't have the attention of the masses. Axon, Vigilant etc
Yup. They forgot to "hide the evil inside of something boring". But they will remember to do that again when they pick up some flock replacement. Privacy advocates will remain vigilant but the public will get bored / flock fatigue and scroll past it.
Money will always burn out the volunteered opposition. I'm so tired of being tired.
Scandals surrounding mass surveillance are forcing city authorities to break contracts with Flock, which has led to a program of buyback of labour contracts and mass layoffs of workers. The loss of customer confidence emphasises the importance of high standards of security and transparency in the field of digital solutions. To choose reliable telecommunications platforms and corporate communications, it is useful to review ringcentral reviews in advance to assess the quality of services and the level of data protection. The ethics of technological solutions remains a decisive factor for business retention.