Cybersecurity Policy Report, Agreement With Surveillance Firm Gives Oregon Drivers New Privacy Protections, Wyden Says, (Jul 28, 2025)
A company that provides license plate scanning systems to law enforcement agencies has agreed to limit its sharing of scans of Oregonians’ plates with authorities outside of Oregon, according to Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.).
Sen. Wyden contacted Flock Safety after confirming with Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D.) and Oregon State Police that Oregon had no statewide policy requiring Oregon police departments contracting with Flock “to lock down their sharing settings so as to prevent out-of-state abuses,” he said in a news release.
Sen. Wyden asked Flock “to implement in Oregon similar privacy filters that the company has already adopted in Illinois to prevent out-of-state police searches related to abortion or immigration,” he said.
The company agreed to his request and confirmed that Oregonians’ license plate data would immediately be protected from such “abusive” queries, Sen. Wyden added.
“Oregonians should never be driving in fear that automatic license plate reader cameras installed by police departments could be abused by anti-abortion forces in other states, or by Donald Trump’s authoritarian deployment of immigration agents,” Sen. Wyden said. “When I learned that Flock had adopted stronger privacy protections for other states, I demanded that Oregonians get the same protections too.”
“I want to thank Senator Wyden for his work to get these additional privacy protections in place for Oregonians,” AG Rayfield said. “This change helps ensure that data collected here can’t be used to target people for things that are legal in Oregon, like accessing reproductive health care or simply living here without fear.”
“It’s a meaningful step in the right direction, and as we continue looking at how to strengthen Oregon’s own data privacy laws, this gives us a stronger foundation to build on,” AG Rayfield said.
Police departments in other states will still be able to search license plate data that Oregon police departments have chosen to share for “legitimate law enforcement purposes,” and the new Flock policy will not affect searches conducted by police departments in Oregon, Sen. Wyden noted.
News: StateLegislation DataPrivacy