MapQuest, the OG software to find your way from point A to point B, is taking on the surveillance state.
The free mapping service unveiled a new feature for its mobile app on Thursday that allows users to turn on a “surveillance layer” on a map to locate known automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, along their route.
MapQuest says the app can identify cameras developed by Flock Safety, Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions, and PlateSmart, among others.
“The Roads Have Eyes!” the company said in its BlueSky post announcing the new feature.
License plate readers capture images of vehicles and then use machine learning to turn details such as license plate numbers, car make, color, and model into searchable data. They’re commonly found at intersections, parking lots, roadways, highways, and neighborhood entrances, businesses, and private properties.
Law enforcement agencies initially embraced license plate readers to help them locate vehicles and identify suspects. Retail outlets have also used Flock cameras as part of their security efforts.
A major backlash against the cameras, however, has led stores, police, and towns to dial back their use.
Critics say the cameras raise privacy concerns and that the data they collect can be misused or shared with federal immigration officials. Some people who’ve opposed the cameras have staged protests, launched petitions, and even forcibly removed them.
The city of Tempe in Arizona said in August it shut down its Flock Safety camera network and planned to terminate its contract. Other towns followed suit.
“These cameras have helped our police officers do their jobs, and we don’t discount that,” Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said in a public statement at the time. “But the risk of misuse is too great. We have to be able to provide public safety in a way that maintains the trust of our community. For Tempe, that means taking these cameras down.”
Flock says its license plate readers do not use facial recognition and that customers — meaning the ones putting up the cameras — can control access to and sharing of the data collected. Amid growing backlash, the company has tightened its privacy safeguards, including reducing the time data is retained from 30 days to 7 days.
“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 told Business Insider in August.
MapQuest first launched in the late 1990s, allowing users to map out a route and print directions. The release of Google Maps eventually obliterated the service. As it tries to stay relevant, it has jumped at opportunities to leverage prevailing public discourse.
In August, MapQuest briefly topped app stores after it — unlike Google — rebuffed President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America.”
