Where the document came from, and what it shows
Jason Hunyar, a Dunwoody resident who obtained the presentation through a public records request, shared the document with 404 Media. The document is the sales deck Flock prepared to present to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General last August, and it states that the Nexar partnership includes 350,000 Uber, Lyft and other delivery service devices. In that form the document settles two things: what was proposed and when it was proposed.[1]
In an email to 404 Media, Flock said it never executed the partnership. The sales deck documents what was offered; whether it was carried out is a separate question, and only a contract, a data-sharing document or an independent audit closes the space between the two. What exists today is a proposal file that the parties have not reconciled.[1]
The missing link in the chain
Flock's automatic licence plate reader cameras are usually stationary cameras on tall poles that constantly scan the plate, colour, make and brand of every vehicle driving past. The Nexar partnership would have taken that collection off the pole and made it mobile; for the person being scanned, the difference is between meeting one camera and sitting inside a network that moves around the city. 404 Media writes that it is not clear whether Uber, Lyft or the drivers working for those apps would have been aware of the collection.[1]
There is another explanation for the uncertainty: driver agreements may already contain a clause about sharing camera data, and a sales deck is under no obligation to describe it. The retention risk stands on its own even so; 404 Media reported in September that a hacker broke into Nexar and reached terabytes of video taken by customers' cameras. One document would settle the question: a data-sharing agreement naming the retention period, who may access the footage and the notice given to the driver. In the chain as described, the driver supplies the camera, Flock's network collects the plates, and the person whose plate is scanned appears at no point where a decision is made.[1]