Flock cameras are everywhere. Here's how they track cars.

Flock cameras read the license plates of all passing cars and then collect and store the data for future investigations.

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Flock cameras are almost everywhere and often hide in plain sight.A Flock camera is an automated license plate reader, or ALPR, made by the public-safety technology company Flock Safety.The cameras are commonly installed along roads, at intersections, near neighborhood entrances, and around businesses or other private properties.When a vehicle passes, the camera captures an image and uses machine learning to turn its license plate, color, make, model, and other supported details into searchable information.That makes them both very useful for those deploying them, like the police, and worrisome for anyone seeking privacy.Flock says its license plate readers do not use facial recognition and that customers — meaning the ones putting up the cameras, not the ones being monitored — can control access to and sharing of the data collected."They are built to focus on the vehicle involved in an incident and the details that can help distinguish it from other vehicles on the road," Flock says.

The company says that vehicle records are automatically deleted after 30 days by default, although customers may configure different retention periods when contracts and local laws permit.Who makes Flock cameras?