Proton puts most detailed Flock map on Swiss servers following takedown attempt
Proton calls the attempts to remove the map “frivolous.”
Image by Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
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- Proton has hosted Joshua Michael’s Flock Surveillance Map on Swiss servers after a takedown attempt.
- The map lists more than 300,000 Flock devices, including over 170,000 cameras.
- A complaint claimed the map misused Flock’s trademark, but Proton called the claim frivolous.
- Critics say Flock’s license plate readers enable mass surveillance and warrantless searches by law enforcement.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Swiss privacy company Proton has republished the most extensive map of Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) locations after the US company attempted to take it offline.
The Flock Surveillance Map of more than 300,000 Flock devices, created by security researcher Joshua Michael, is now hosted on Proton’s servers in Switzerland.
The map includes more than 170,000 cameras and over 130,000 secondary hardware units, revealing a more extensive surveillance network than the company had previously admitted.
Brand-protection vendor Doppel filed a trademark infringement complaint on September 24th, 2026, on Flock Safety’s behalf, asking Michael to remove the map, The Intercept first reported.
According to the complaint, the website’s disclaimer, informing that it “is not affiliated with or endorsed by Flock,” uses the “Flock Safety” trademark without authorization and “may cause customer confusion” or harm the company.
Unlike other volunteer projects based on street sightings, Michael built the website using a database of coordinates obtained directly from the Flock website, which was publicly leaking an access token exposing the locations of its devices without a login.
Flock Safety patched the security flaw and publicly maintains that the company “has never been hacked, and there has not been a leak of Flock information.”
There is no publicly available information about any other legal actions Flock took against Michael, nor did the company dispute the accuracy of his map.
“Censorship through lawfare”
Proton says it is publishing a copy of the map to keep it available to the public.
“We believe Flock’s attempts to take this map down are frivolous. Nobody confuses a map of Flock’s cameras with Flock itself. This is an attempt to suppress information, not to prevent consumer confusion,” Marc Løebekken, a head of legal at Proton, is quoted as saying.
Michael says he refuses to be “censored through lawfare.”
He explains, “My research argued that Flock could not detect exports of their data, and because they hold data on nearly every American and their pattern of life, that makes them a national security threat.”
Flock cameras capture not only plate numbers but also the model, color, and details as small as bumper stickers on every passing car. This creates a vast web of data that law enforcement can access to conduct searches without a warrant.
Critics accuse Flock Safety of enabling mass surveillance, and the company faces growing backlash over reports that law enforcement officers use the system to stalk women.
