From license plate covers to AI camouflage, people are finding creative ways to evade Flock surveillance cameras. But can these so-called anti-tracking privacy tricks actually fool the technology?

Friday at DEF CON, longtime security and privacy guru Bill “hevnsnt” Swearingen put his latest anti-surveillance research to the test – wrapping a 2009 Toyota Yaris in specially designed camouflage to see if he could hide the car from a Flock camera.

The experiment – an extension of Swearingen’s research into adversarial patterns that can fool facial recognition systems – used one of his closely guarded AI-generated prints to see if it had the same impact on the automated license plate reader.

It all stems from the widespread public backlash against Flock’s growing network of surveillance cameras.

"Private companies like Flock and Palantir Technologies and government agencies they sell to have built a surveillance infrastructure that nobody voted for. My research is one of the only ways to opt out," Swearingen posted on X to explain his motivation.

Right now, the asymmetry has swung way too far in the wrong direction. Private companies like Flock and Palantir Technologies and government agencies they sell to have built a surveillance infrastructure that nobody voted for. My research is one of the only ways to opt out.

undefined ~billswearingen☎️# 🟩 (@hevnsnt) May 18, 2026

Flock backlash goes physical

From anti-surveillance vigilantes cutting down Flock cameras in broad daylight to a Michigan dispensary installing a “No Flock Zone” sign to block a Flock camera recording its customers – it seems people will go to any lengths to prevent the “invasive” surveillance cameras from infiltrating their lives.

The anti-Flock brouhaha has also spilled onto Reddit, where users – including Swearingen – are trading everything from serious surveillance concerns to increasingly creative ideas for throwing Flock cameras off their game.

One user joked, “The vehicle wrap market is watching this.”

Another imagined an “injection attack via a flock cam interpretation,” garnering this response:

“A zero day that single handedly bricks the entire flock system all because a car with a QR code on the back window. I cannot wait to read the articles about this.”

The fight against Flock goes analog

Meanwhile, there are countless threads discussing various tips and tricks to avoid becoming Flock fodder, with Cybernews picking out some of the more outlandish ideas, as well as more serious contenders.

Reddit users are actively asking whether tinted, reflective, or angled covers work. Additionally, users have suggested nano film covering, anti-radar stickers, and holographic plates.

One user simply noted that Flock cameras “can’t read a license plate from a pickup truck while the tailgate is down.”

That same person also suggested a driver could surround their license plate “in strong infrared lights, which would effectively wash out any photo taken by an infrared camera” after dark.

Another analog-friendly idea was to swap magnetic bumper stickers every day, while other users wondered what would stop someone from standing in front of a camera with “a big sign or balloon?” or even "dropping a plastic garbage bag" over the Flock camera using a drone.

And when an exasperated Redditor joked, “Flying cars are sounding like an option,” the idea was quickly shot down: “That will be tracked even more.”

Obscuring a license plate may not be enough

To be clear, Reddit threads are full of claims, but plenty of users openly admit they don't know whether they work.

One commenter warned that Flock “goes beyond just a license plate reader,” noting that the system can build a vehicle “fingerprint” from stickers, decals, and other identifying features, including, of course, the driver's face.

Flock cameras also capture other characteristics of a vehicle, including its make, model, color, and distinguishing features – even major dents and record the dates and exact times of travel.

And some of the simpler tricks could even land drivers in legal trouble, depending on state laws.

For example, Florida prohibits devices designed to interfere with a plate’s visibility or ability to be recorded, and New Jersey bans certain products intended to conceal or degrade plate legibility to evade law enforcement.

That’s precisely what makes Swearingen’s approach so unique – instead of just hiding the plate, his “adversarial patterns” target the computer’s vision itself.

His goal is to use the AI pattern to exploit blind spots in the camera’s neural network – effectively making the subject disappear into the background as far as the AI detector is concerned.

Swearingen says Flock is the one detector where he targeted the “actual on-device weights” – essentially the model parameters the camera itself uses to identify what it sees.

The final Flock verdict

So, did Swearingen’s AI-generated pattern prevent the Flock camera from recording the Toyota’s license plate?

We may have to wait to find out.

Although Swearingen did say, “We proved it was effective” about the camouflaged Toyota, it’s not yet clear to what extent.

Donut Media, which partnered with Swearingen on the experiment, says video of the test will drop in the next few weeks.

Cybernews has reached out to Flock Safety for comment on efforts to evade its cameras and how the technology responds when license plates cannot be identified.