“And I ran. I ran so far away. I just ran. I ran all night and day. I couldn’t get away.” – the band A Flock of Seagulls

My wife is fond of blurting out, “Technology is great when it works,” whenever a store’s credit card reader goes on the fritz or the Sunday School leader’s laptop refuses to link up with the classroom projector to show a video.

However, technology has now advanced to a point where many folks are mumbling in an exasperated tone, “Maybe I could do with technology not working as often.”

The technological outrage du jour centers on the use of automated license plate readers. The prevalence of one particular company’s brand of readers has caused the company’s name to be synonymous with the technology. That company is Flock Safety whose license plate readers are known colloquially as Flock cameras.

Both the benefits and dangers of license plate readers are readily apparent.

They can be of huge benefit in tracking down a dangerous criminal on the run from law enforcement, locating someone who is missing or is the subject of an Amber Alert, or gathering evidence against someone who may be stalking another person.

Many of Flock’s clients are law enforcement agencies. License plate numbers captured by Flock cameras are uploaded to a database that can be matched to lists either provided by clients or made available by government agencies.

License plate readers can also trigger negative consequences, though. Civil liberties groups worry about the government being able to track everyday citizens’ movements and actions by using these readers in combination with other technological developments like facial recognition cameras.

This could tiptoe on the line of violating your Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment protects you and your property against unreasonable searches by the government.

In addition, while Flock may be useful in prosecuting stalkers, it might also create more of them. If you check out the Wikipedia page on Flock Safety, it lists several incidents of law enforcement officers misusing Flock cameras to track people they know, including current or former romantic partners.

The same Wikipedia page also notes mistakes can be made due to the technology misreading a license plate, leading to innocent people being arrested or detained, sometimes at gunpoint.

To Flock Safety’s credit, it has recently introduced a policy it calls “Audit Assistance” to detect abnormal search activity and flag potential abuses for an administrator to review as well as cutting back the amount of time it retains the vast majority of its license plate data to only seven days.

Perhaps the bigger concern is privacy. Privacy is not specifically listed as right in the U.S. Constitution, but the U.S. Supreme Court has generally considered privacy as a right of the people provided by the Ninth Amendment, which says people do have rights beyond what is specifically listed in the Constitution.

The use of Flock cameras by law enforcement tends to get more attention, but a subscription for Flock’s license plate readers can also be purchased by private citizens. Homeowner associations seem to be among the private people and groups most keen on subscribing to Flock cameras.

But should an HOA be able to do this?

There is nothing stopping anyone from setting up their own closed-circuit camera on their property to record the traffic driving by their house on public roads, so is this different?

Well, it at least feels different due to the amount and specificity of data now available to Flock Safety and its subscribers – subscribers who can share this information with whomever they like.

The ease with which people can track my driving habits and where I am likely to be at certain times on certain days seems more invasive.

At least with the closed-circuit camera example, someone would have to make the effort to pore through recorded footage to track me. Yet, just because access to information is easier, does that make it fundamentally different?

I started writing this article with a position for banning Flock cameras, but as I wrote I have to admit I moved more toward a position of I think they are at least legal despite the fact I do not like them.

Let me close by adding that knowledge is a two-way street. If license plate readers are allowed to collect your data, you can also know where those readers are located.

DeFlock.com is an open-source project that offers a free map where people can see the location of license plate readers across the country as well as submit the location of unlisted readers.

If you can’t beat ‘em, avoid ‘em.