Transistors, the building blocks of modern electronics, are typically made of silicon. Because it’s a semiconductor, this material can control the flow of electricity in a circuit. But silicon has fundamental physical limits that restrict how compact and energy-efficient a transistor can be.

MIT researchers have now replaced silicon with a magnetic semiconductor, creating a magnetic transistor that could enable smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient circuits. The material’s magnetism strongly influences its electronic behavior, leading to more efficient control of the flow of electricity. 

The team used a novel magnetic material and an optimization process that reduces the material’s defects, which boosts the transistor’s performance.

The material’s unique magnetic properties also allow for transistors with built-in memory, which would simplify circuit design and unlock new applications for high-performance electronics.

“People have known about magnets for thousands of years, but there are very limited ways to incorporate magnetism into electronics. We have shown a new way to efficiently utilize magnetism that opens up a lot of possibilities for future applications and research,” says Chung-Tao Chou, an MIT graduate student in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Physics, and co-lead author of a paper on this advance.

Chou is joined on the paper by co-lead author Eugene Park, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE); Julian Klein, a DMSE research scientist; Josep Ingla-Aynes, a postdoc in the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center; Jagadeesh S. Moodera, a senior research scientist in the Department of Physics; and senior authors Frances Ross, TDK Professor in DMSE; and Luqiao Liu, an associate professor in EECS, and a member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics; as well as others at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. The paper appears today in Physical Review Letters.

Overcoming the limits

In an electronic device, silicon semiconductor transistors act like tiny light switches that turn a circuit on and off, or amplify weak signals in a communication system. They do this using a small input voltage.

But a fundamental physical limit of silicon semiconductors prevents a transistor from operating below a certain voltage, which hinders its energy efficiency.

To make more efficient electronics, researchers have spent decades working toward magnetic transistors that utilize electron spin to control the flow of electricity. Electron spin is a fundamental property that enables electrons to behave like tiny magnets.

So far, scientists have mostly been limited to using certain magnetic materials. These lack the favorable electronic properties of semiconductors, constraining device performance.

“In this work, we combine magnetism and semiconductor physics to realize useful spintronic devices,” Liu says.

The researchers replace the silicon in the surface layer of a transistor with chromium sulfur bromide, a two-dimensional material that acts as a magnetic semiconductor.

Due to the material’s structure, researchers can switch between two magnetic states very cleanly. This makes it ideal for use in a transistor that smoothly switches between “on” and “off.”

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was finding the right material. We tried many other materials that didn’t work,” Chou says.

They discovered that changing these magnetic states modifies the material’s electronic properties, enabling low-energy operation. And unlike many other 2D materials, chromium sulfur bromide remains stable in air.

To make a transistor, the researchers pattern electrodes onto a silicon substrate, then carefully align and transfer the 2D material on top. They use tape to pick up a tiny piece of material, only a few tens of nanometers thick, and place it onto the substrate.

“A lot of researchers will use solvents or glue to do the transfer, but transistors require a very clean surface. We eliminate all those risks by simplifying this step,” Chou says.

Leveraging magnetism

This lack of contamination enables their device to outperform existing magnetic transistors. Most others can only create a weak magnetic effect, changing the flow of current by a few percent or less. Their new transistor can switch or amplify the electric current by a factor of 10.

They use an external magnetic field to change the magnetic state of the material, switching the transistor using significantly less energy than would usually be required.

The material also allows them to control the magnetic states with electric current. This is important because engineers cannot apply magnetic fields to individual transistors in an electronic device. They need to control each one electrically.

The material’s magnetic properties could also enable transistors with built-in memory, simplifying the design of logic or memory circuits.

A typical memory device has a magnetic cell to store information and a transistor to read it out. Their method can combine both into one magnetic transistor.

“Now, not only are transistors turning on and off, they are also remembering information. And because we can switch the transistor with greater magnitude, the signal is much stronger so we can read out the information faster, and in a much more reliable way,” Liu says.

Building on this demonstration, the researchers plan to further study the use of electrical current to control the device. They are also working to make their method scalable so they can fabricate arrays of transistors.

This research was supported, in part, by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Army Research Office, and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. The work was partially carried out at the MIT.nano facilities.

I did not know Adidas sold a sneaker called “Squid.”

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

One of our favorite—and most important—things that we do at EFF is to work toward a better future. It can be easy to get caught up in all the crazy things that are happening in the moment, especially with the fires that need to be put out. But it’s just as important to keep our eyes on new technologies, how they are impacting digital rights, and how we can ensure that our rights and freedoms expand over time.

That's why EFF is excited to spotlight two free book events this December that look ahead, providing insight on how to build this better future. Featuring EFF’s Executive Director Cindy Cohn, we’ll be exploring how stories, technology, and policy shape the world around us. Here’s how you can join us this year and learn more about next year’s events:

Exploring Progressive Social Change at The Booksmith - We Will Rise Again 

December 2 | 7:00 PM Pacific Time | The Booksmith, San Francisco 

We’re celebrating the release of We Will Rise Again, a new anthology of speculative stories from writers across the world, including Cindy Cohn, Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, Reo Eveleth, Andrea Dehlendorf, and Vida Jame. This collection explores topics ranging from disability justice and environmental activism to community care and collective worldbuilding to offer tools for organizing, interrogating the status quo, and a blueprint for building a better world.

Join Cindy Cohn and her fellow panelists at this event to learn how speculative fiction helps us think critically about technology, civil liberties, and the kind of world we want to create. We hope to see some familiar faces there! 

RSVP AND LEARN MORE

AI, Politics, and the Future of Democracy - Rewiring Democracy

December 3 | 6:00 PM Pacific Time | Virtual

We’re also geared up to join an online discussion with EFF Board Member Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders about their new book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. In this time when AI is taking up every conversation—from generative AI tools to algorithmic decision-making in government—this book cuts through the hype to examine the ways that the technology is transforming every aspect of democracy, for good and bad. 

Cindy Cohn will join Schneier and Sanders for a forward-looking conversation about what’s possible, and what’s at stake, as AI weaves itself into our governments and how to steer it in the right direction. We’ll see you online for this one! 

RSVP AND LEARN MORE

Announcing Cindy Cohn's New Book, Privacy's Defender

In March we’ll be kicking off the celebration for Cindy Cohn’s new book, Privacy’s Defender, chronicling her thirty-year battle to protect everyone’s right to digital privacy and offering insights into the ongoing fight for our civil liberties online. Stay tuned for more information about our first event at City Lights on Tuesday, March 10!

The celebration doesn’t stop there. Look out for more celebrations for Privacy’s Defender throughout the year, and we hope we’ll see you at one of them. Plus, you can learn more about the book and even preorder it today! 

PREORDER PRIVACY'S DEFENDER

You can keep up to date on these book events, and more EFF happenings when you sign up for our EFFector newsletter and check out our full event calendar.

 

It’s been a month since Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship was published. From what we know, sales are good.

Some of the book’s forty-three chapters are available online: chapters 2, 12, 28, 34, 38, and 41.

We need more reviews—six on Amazon is not enough, and no one has yet posted a viral TikTok review. One review was published in Nature and another on the RSA Conference website, but more would be better. If you’ve read the book, please leave a review somewhere.

My coauthor and I have been doing all sort of book events, both online and in person. This ...

A California judge ordered the end of a dragnet law enforcement program that surveilled the electrical smart meter data of thousands of Sacramento residents.

The Sacramento County Superior Court ruled that the surveillance program run by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and police violated a state privacy statute, which bars the disclosure of residents’ electrical usage data with narrow exceptions. For more than a decade, SMUD coordinated with the Sacramento Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to sift through the granular smart meter data of residents without suspicion to find evidence of cannabis growing.

EFF and its co-counsel represent three petitioners in the case: the Asian American Liberation Network, Khurshid Khoja, and Alfonso Nguyen. They argued that the program created a host of privacy harms—including criminalizing innocent people, creating menacing encounters with law enforcement, and disproportionately harming the Asian community.

The court ruled that the challenged surveillance program was not part of any traditional law enforcement investigation. Investigations happen when police try to solve particular crimes and identify particular suspects. The dragnet that turned all 650,000 SMUD customers into suspects was not an investigation.

“[T]he process of making regular requests for all customer information in numerous city zip codes, in the hopes of identifying evidence that could possibly be evidence of illegal activity, without any report or other evidence to suggest that such a crime may have occurred, is not an ongoing investigation,” the court ruled, finding that SMUD violated its “obligations of confidentiality” under a data privacy statute.

Granular electrical usage data can reveal intimate details inside the home—including when you go to sleep, when you take a shower, when you are away, and other personal habits and demographics.

The dragnet turned 650,000 SMUD customers into suspects.

In creating and running the dragnet surveillance program, according to the court, SMUD and police “developed a relationship beyond that of utility provider and law enforcement.” Multiple times a year, the police asked SMUD to search its entire database of 650,000 customers to identify people who used a large amount of monthly electricity and to analyze granular 1-hour electrical usage data to identify residents with certain electricity “consumption patterns.” SMUD passed on more than 33,000 tips about supposedly “high” usage households to police.

While this is a victory, the Court unfortunately dismissed an alternate claim that the program violated the California Constitution’s search and seizure clause. We disagree with the court’s reasoning, which misapprehends the crux of the problem: At the behest of law enforcement, SMUD searches granular smart meter data and provides insights to law enforcement based on that granular data.

Going forward, public utilities throughout California should understand that they cannot disclose customers’ electricity data to law enforcement without any “evidence to support a suspicion” that a particular crime occurred.

EFF, along with Monty Agarwal of the law firm Vallejo, Antolin, Agarwal, Kanter LLP, brought and argued the case on behalf of Petitioners.

Related Cases: Asian American Liberation Network v. SMUD, et al.

From Anthropic:

In mid-September 2025, we detected suspicious activity that later investigation determined to be a highly sophisticated espionage campaign. The attackers used AI’s “agentic” capabilities to an unprecedented degree­—using AI not just as an advisor, but to execute the cyberattacks themselves.

The threat actor—­whom we assess with high confidence was a Chinese state-sponsored group—­manipulated our Claude Code tool into attempting infiltration into roughly thirty global targets and succeeded in a small number of cases. The operation targeted large tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies. We believe this is the first documented case of a large-scale cyberattack executed without substantial human intervention...

Policyholder-owned insurance exchanges are filling voids left by traditional insurers. But some are low on cash to pay excessive claims.

“Good fortune” with a lack of catastrophes helps seven major insurers earn more than $1 billion in underwriting, new analysis finds.

The blaze closed an area with pavilions set up by countries to showcase their climate action. China’s knicknacks were especially popular.

Democrat Tina Kotek is directing agencies to coordinate on everything from permitting to investment in a push to achieve net-zero electricity by 2040.

A NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft measured a 252-mph gust at the ocean surface as the monster storm approached Jamaica.

Representatives of small island states said their economies depend on keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Walking away from oil and gas revenue would require a titanic shift in the nation’s economy.

Roam expects to begin selling the offsets in about a year. Its motorcycles are used in Kenya by the likes of DHL, Wells Fargo and Bolt.

The European Commission plan is part of a broader overhaul of the ESG framework to streamline regulations and cut costs for businesses.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02474-z

Measurements of carbon fluxes and wood phenology are used to assess carbon sources from photosynthesis and their sink into woody growth along a thermal gradient. The authors show that stem growth advances slower than photosynthesis per degree Celsius, creating a phenological mismatch for carbon.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02498-5

The authors consider studies reporting species range shifts and demonstrate a geometric bias in sampling along latitudinal, rather than longitudinal, gradients. This bias may favour the corroboration of shift expectations with warming and mask other patterns and drivers of species movements.

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02486-9

Climate change is expected to lead to higher day-to-day temperature variability in mid- to low latitudes. Here the authors show that extreme day-to-day temperature changes have distinct impacts on human health and become more frequent and intense in mid- to low latitudes with climate change.

In April, MIT senior Josh Randolph will race 26.2 miles across Concord, Massachusetts, and neighboring towns, carrying a 50-lb backpack. The race, called the Tough Ruck, honors America’s fallen military and first responders. For Randolph, it is one of the most rewarding experiences he’s done in his time at MIT, and he’s never missed a race.

“I want to do things that are challenging and push me to learn more about myself,” says Randolph, a Nebraska native. “As soon as I found out about the Tough Ruck, I knew I was going to be a part of it.”

Carrying on tradition and honoring those before him is a priority for Randolph. Both of his grandfathers served in the United States Air Force, and now he’s following in their footsteps through leadership in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFROTC) at MIT. His work with MIT Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has inspired him to aim for medical school so he could join the Air Force as a doctor.

“I always wanted to be in public service, serve my community, and serve my country,” Randolph says.

Getting attached to medicine

Randolph was particularly close with his grandfather, who worked with electronics in the Air Force and later became an engineer.

“I’ve always seen him as a big role model of mine. He’s very proud of his service,” Randolph says. A mechanical engineering major, he shares his grandfather’s interest in the scientific and technical side of the military.

But Randolph hasn’t let his commitment to the Air Force narrow his experiences at MIT.

He signed up for MIT EMS in his sophomore year as a way to push out of his comfort zone. Although he didn’t have a strong interest in medicine at the time, he was excited about being responsible for providing essential services to his community.

“If somebody’s in need on campus, they call 911, and we’re entrusted with the responsibility to help them out and keep them safe. I didn’t even know that was something you could do in college,” Randolph says.

Getting late-night calls and handling high-pressure situations took some getting used to, but he loved that he was helping.

“It feels a little uncomfortable at first, but then the more calls you run, the more experience you get and the more comfortable you feel with it, and then the more you want to do,” Randolph says.

Since joining in his second year, Randolph has responded to more than 100 911 calls and now holds the rank of provincial crew chief, meaning he provides basic life support patient care and coordinates on-scene operations.

His experiences interacting with patients and racing around Cambridge, Massachusetts, to help his community made him realize he would regret not pursuing medicine. In his final year at MIT, he set his sights on medical school. “Even though it was pretty late, I decided to make that switch and put my all into medicine,” Randolph says.

After serving as class officer during his junior year, helping to oversee the EMT certification process, Randolph became the director of professional development in his senior year. In this role, he oversees the training and development of service members as well as the quality of patient care. “It’s great to see how new students integrate and gain bigger roles and become more involved with the services,” Randolph says. “It’s really rewarding to contribute a little bit toward their development within EMS and then also just as people.”

Leadership in the ROTC

Randolph knew he would be a part of Air Force ROTC since early in high school. He later earned the Air Force ROTC Type 1 scholarship that gave him a tuition-free spot at MIT. It was through AFROTC that he became further committed to helping and honoring those around him, including through the Tough Ruck.

“Pretty often there are family members of fallen servicemembers who make tags with their loved one’s name on it and they hand them out for people to carry on their rucks, which is pretty cool, Randolph said of the race. “Overall, it is a really supportive environment, and I try to give as many people high fives and as much encouragement as I can, but at some point I get too tired and need to focus on running.”

His parents come out to watch every year.

In previous semesters, Randolph has served as flight commander and group commander within AFROTC’s Detachment 365, which is based at MIT and also hosts cadets from Harvard University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. Currently, as squadron commander, he leads one of the 20-cadet units that makes up the detachment. He has co-organized three Leadership Laboratories dedicated to training over 70 cadets.

Randolph has earned the AFROTC Field Training Superior Performance Award, the AFROTC Commendation Award, the AFROTC Achievement Award, and the Military Order of the World Wars Bronze Award. He has also received the AFROTC Academic Honors Award five times, the Physical Fitness Award four times, and the Maximum AFROTC Physical Fitness Assessment Award two times. 

He keeps his activities and schoolwork straight through to-do lists and calendar items, but he admits the workload can still be tough.

“One thing that has helped me is trying to prioritize and figure out what things need my attention immediately or what things will be very important. If it is something that is important and will affect or benefit a lot of people, I try and devote my energy toward that to make the most of my time and implement meaningful things,” Randolph says.

A human-centered direction

For the last two years, Randolph worked in the Pappalardo Laboratory as an apprentice and undergraduate assistant, helping students design, fabricate, and test robots they were building for a class design challenge. He has also conducted linguistics research with Professor Suzanne Flynn and worked in the labs of professor of nuclear science and engineering Michael Short and professor of biological and mechanical engineering Domatilla Del Vecchio.

Randolph has also volunteered his time through English for Speakers of Other Languages, where he worked as a volunteer to help MIT employees improve their English speaking and writing skills.

For now, he is excited to enter a more human-centered field through his studies in medicine. After watching his father survive two bouts of cancer, thanks in part to robotically assisted surgery, he hopes to develop robotic health care applications.

“I want to have a deeper and more tangible connection to people. Compassion and empathy are things that I really want to try and live by,” Randolph says. “I think being the most empathetic and compassionate with the people you take care of is always a good thing.”

It's no secret that 2025 has given Americans plenty to protest about. But as news cameras showed protesters filling streets of cities across the country, law enforcement officers—including U.S. Border Patrol agents—were quietly watching those same streets through different lenses: Flock Safety automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that tracked every passing car. 

Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches on Flock Safety's servers, we discovered that more than 50 federal, state, and local agencies ran hundreds of searches through Flock's national network of surveillance data in connection with protest activity. In some cases, law enforcement specifically targeted known activist groups, demonstrating how mass surveillance technology increasingly threatens our freedom to demonstrate. 

Flock Safety provides ALPR technology to thousands of law enforcement agencies. The company installs cameras throughout their jurisdictions, and these cameras photograph every car that passes, documenting the license plate, color, make, model and other distinguishing characteristics. This data is paired with time and location, and uploaded to a massive searchable database. Flock Safety encourages agencies to share the data they collect broadly with other agencies across the country. It is common for an agency to search thousands of networks nationwide even when they don't have reason to believe a targeted vehicle left the region. 

Via public records requests, EFF obtained datasets representing more than 12 million searches logged by more than 3,900 agencies between December 2024 and October 2025. The data shows that agencies logged hundreds of searches related to the 50501 protests in February, the Hands Off protests in April, the No Kings protests in June and October, and other protests in between. 

The Tulsa Police Department in Oklahoma was one of the most consistent users of Flock Safety's ALPR system for investigating protests, logging at least 38 such searches. This included running searches that corresponded to a protest against deportation raids in February, a protest at Tulsa City Hall in support of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil in March, and the No Kings protest in June. During the most recent No Kings protests in mid-October, agencies such as the Lisle Police Department in Illinois, the Oro Valley Police Department in Arizona, and the Putnam County (Tenn.) Sheriff's Office all ran protest-related searches. 

While EFF and other civil liberties groups argue the law should require a search warrant for such searches, police are simply prompted to enter text into a "reason" field in the Flock Safety system. Usually this is only a few words–or even just one.

In these cases, that word was often just “protest.” 

Crime does sometimes occur at protests, whether that's property damage, pick-pocketing, or clashes between groups on opposite sides of a protest. Some of these searches may have been tied to an actual crime that occurred, even though in most cases officers did not articulate a criminal offense when running the search. But the truth is, the only reason an officer is able to even search for a suspect at a protest is because ALPRs collected data on every single person who attended the protest. 

Search and Dissent 

2025 was an unprecedented year of street action. In June and again in October, thousands across the country mobilized under the banner of the “No Kings” movement—marches against government overreach, surveillance, and corporate power. By some estimates, the October demonstrations ranked among the largest single-day protests in U.S. history, filling the streets from Washington, D.C., to Portland, OR. 

EFF identified 19 agencies that logged dozens of searches associated with the No Kings protests in June and October 2025. In some cases the "No Kings" was explicitly used, while in others the term "protest" was used but coincided with the massive protests.

Law Enforcement Agencies that Ran Searches Corresponding with "No Kings" Rallies

• Anaheim Police Department, Calif.
• Arizona Department of Public Safety
• Beaumont Police Department, Texas
• Charleston Police Department, SC
• Flagler County Sheriff's Office, Fla.
• Georgia State Patrol
• Lisle Police Department, Ill.
• Little Rock Police Department, Ark.
• Marion Police Department, Ohio
• Morristown Police Department, Tenn.
• Oro Valley Police Department, Ariz.
• Putnam County Sheriff's Office, Tenn.
• Richmond Police Department, Va.
• Riverside County Sheriff's Office, Calif.
• Salinas Police Department, Calif.
• San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, Calif.
• Spartanburg Police Department, SC
• Tempe Police Department, Ariz.
• Tulsa Police Department, Okla.
• US Border Patrol

For example: 

• In Washington state, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office listed "no kings" as the reason for three searches on June 13, 2025. The agency queried 95 camera networks, looking for vehicles matching the description of "work van," "bus" or "box truck." 
• In Texas, the Beaumont Police Department ran six searches related to two vehicles on June 14, 2025, listing "KINGS DAY PROTEST" as the reason. The queries reached across 1,774 networks. 
• In California, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office ran a single search for a vehicle across 711 networks, logging "no king" as the reason. 
• In Arizona, the Tempe Police Department made three searches for "ATL No Kings Protest" on June 15, 2025 searching through 425 networks. "ATL" is police code for "attempt to locate." The agency appears to not have been looking for a particular plate, but for any red vehicle on the road during a certain time window.

But the No Kings protests weren't the only demonstrations drawing law enforcement's digital dragnet in 2025. 

For example:

• In Nevada's state capital, the Carson City Sheriff's Office ran three searches that correspond to the February 50501 Protests against DOGE and the Trump administration. The agency searched for two vehicles across 178 networks with "protest" as the reason.
• In Florida, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office logged "protest" for five searches that correspond to a local May Day rally.
• In Alabama, the Homewood Police Department logged four searches in early July 2025 for three vehicles with "PROTEST CASE" and "PROTEST INV." in the reason field. The searches, which probed 1,308 networks, correspond to protests against the police shooting of Jabari Peoples.
• In Texas, the Lubbock Police Department ran two searches for a Tennessee license plate on March 15 that corresponds to a rally to highlight the mental health impact of immigration policies. The searches hit 5,966 networks, with the logged reason "protest veh."
• In Michigan, Grand Rapids Police Department ran five searches that corresponded with the Stand Up and Fight Back Rally in February. The searches hit roughly 650 networks, with the reason logged as "Protest."

Some agencies have adopted policies that prohibit using ALPRs for monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment. Yet many officers probed the nationwide network with terms like "protest" without articulating an actual crime under investigation.

In a few cases, police were using Flock’s ALPR network to investigate threats made against attendees or incidents where motorists opposed to the protests drove their vehicle into crowds. For example, throughout June 2025, an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer logged three searches for “no kings rock threat,” and a Wichita (Kan.) Police Department officer logged 22 searches for various license plates under the reason “Crime Stoppers Tip of causing harm during protests.”

Even when law enforcement is specifically looking for vehicles engaged in potentially criminal behavior such as threatening protesters, it cannot be ignored that mass surveillance systems work by collecting data on everyone driving to or near a protest—not just those under suspicion.

Border Patrol's Expanding Reach 

As U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), ICE, and other federal agencies tasked with immigration enforcement have massively expanded operations into major cities, advocates for immigrants have responded through organized rallies, rapid-response confrontations, and extended presences at federal facilities. 

USBP has made extensive use of Flock Safety's system for immigration enforcement, but also to target those who object to its tactics. In June, a few days after the No Kings Protest, USBP ran three searches for a vehicle using the descriptor “Portland Riots.” 

USBP has made extensive use of Flock Safety's system for immigration enforcement, but also to target those who object to its tactics.

USBP also used the Flock Safety network to investigate a motorist who had “extended his middle finger” at Border Patrol vehicles that were transporting detainees. The motorist then allegedly drove in front of one of the vehicles and slowed down, forcing the Border Patrol vehicle to brake hard. An officer ran seven searches for his plate, citing "assault on agent" and "18 usc 111," the federal criminal statute for assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. The individual was charged in federal court in early August. 

USBP had access to the Flock system during a trial period in the first half of 2025, but the company says it has since paused the agency's access to the system. However, Border Patrol and other federal immigration authorities have been able to access the system’s data through local agencies who have run searches on their behalf or even lent them logins. 

Targeting Animal Rights Activists

Law enforcement's use of Flock's ALPR network to surveil protesters isn't limited to large-scale political demonstrations. Three agencies also used the system dozens of times to specifically target activists from Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), an animal-rights organization known for using civil disobedience tactics to expose conditions at factory farms.

Delaware State Police queried the Flock national network nine times in March 2025 related to DxE actions, logging reasons such as "DxE Protest Suspect Vehicle." DxE advocates told EFF that these searches correspond to an investigation the organization undertook of a Mountaire Farms facility. 

Additionally, the California Highway Patrol logged dozens of searches related to a "DXE Operation" throughout the day on May 27, 2025. The organization says this corresponds with an annual convening in California that typically ends in a direct action. Participants leave the event early in the morning, then drive across the state to a predetermined but previously undisclosed protest site. Also in May, the Merced County Sheriff's Office in California logged two searches related to "DXE activity." 

As an organization engaged in direct activism, DxE has experienced criminal prosecution for its activities, and so the organization told EFF they were not surprised to learn they are under scrutiny from law enforcement, particularly considering how industrial farmers have collected and distributed their own intelligence to police.

The targeting of DxE activists reveals how ALPR surveillance extends beyond conventional and large-scale political protests to target groups engaged in activism that challenges powerful industries. For animal-rights activists, the knowledge that their vehicles are being tracked through a national surveillance network undeniably creates a chilling effect on their ability to organize and demonstrate.

Fighting Back Against ALPR 

ALPR systems are designed to capture information on every vehicle that passes within view. That means they don't just capture data on "criminals" but on everyone, all the time—and that includes people engaged in their First Amendment right to publicly dissent. Police are sitting on massive troves of data that can reveal who attended a protest, and this data shows they are not afraid to use it. 

Our analysis only includes data where agencies explicitly mentioned protests or related terms in the "reason" field when documenting their search. It's likely that scores more were conducted under less obvious pretexts and search reasons. According to our analysis, approximately 20 percent of all searches we reviewed listed vague language like "investigation," "suspect," and "query" in the reason field. Those terms could well be cover for spying on a protest, an abortion prosecution, or an officer stalking a spouse, and no one would be the wiser–including the agencies whose data was searched. Flock has said it will now require officers to select a specific crime under investigation, but that can and will also be used to obfuscate dubious searches. 

For protestors, this data should serve as confirmation that ALPR surveillance has been and will be used to target activities protected by the First Amendment. Depending on your threat model, this means you should think carefully about how you arrive at protests, and explore options such as by biking, walking, carpooling, taking public transportation, or simply parking a little further away from the action. Our Surveillance Self-Defense project has more information on steps you could take to protect your privacy when traveling to and attending a protest.

For local officials, this should serve as another example of how systems marketed as protecting your community may actually threaten the values your communities hold most dear. The best way to protect people is to shut down these camera networks.  

Everyone should have the right to speak up against injustice without ending up in a database.