from the when-even-cops-think-you’re-shady dept

You have to know you’re fucking up when your largest and best-paying customer base is increasingly noping out of contract renewals. That more than anything is probably what provoked ALPR maker Flock Safety to start implementing a few guardrails for use.

It seemingly had no problem with being the target of negative press for most of the past couple of years. Every time the press (or politicians) came gunning for it, it would either claim the reporting was misleading or suggest those criticizing it were opposed to public safety.

For the first time ever, Flock has finally added some stuff to its products that’s meant to address months of reporting on abusive use by cops and abusive actions by the company itself. Flock’s tech has aided and abetted acts of stalking by police officers all over the nation, with new incidents seemingly reported daily. To that end, Flock has added some new default settings that limit retention periods, demand more info from officers performing searches, and flag potential misuse for review by police departments using its tech.

But it’s too little and far too late. “Too little” because while these new restrictions are on by default, they don’t seem to affect any systems already in use and can easily be switched off by law enforcement agencies. While you’d think more cops shops would welcome additional reporting that might flag misuse of ALPR databases, most seem perfectly content to allow local journalists to operate as unofficial, unpaid interns who will do the work Internal Affairs doesn’t seem interested in doing itself.

And it really doesn’t matter whether or not Flock’s CEO believes the company is the “first” to do anything about police misconduct. The rest of the country doesn’t believe him. Nor does it trust Flock. Flock is getting kicked to the curb with escalating frequency, as Cyrus Farivar reports for Ars Technica.

New data compiled by a Bay Area anti-surveillance advocacy group shows that not only are American localities dropping cameras from Flock Safety, but they are doing it at an accelerating rate.

Communities from Lansing, Michigan, to Pflugerville, Texas, are ending their relationship with Flock, largely over concerns regarding out-of-control surveillance, unwanted data sharing, high expenses, and reports of police abusing the tool.

Secure Justice, an Oakland-based advocacy group, has recorded 214 cities and counties that have dropped Flock since 2021. Of those, 90 ended their relationship with Flock in August 2026 alone, a fourfold increase compared to the previous month.

If you like your charts with hockey sticks, Secure Justice has one for you — one that has already been updated twice since Ars Technica first published its piece on August 28:

Here’s a closer look at the updated chart, which tallies another 10 Flock drops since August 26, bringing the new total to 96 in August alone.

This trend will continue. Flock doesn’t seem capable — much less willing — to provide ALPR tech that can be trusted by the public or even the law enforcement agencies utilizing it.

If you want more anecdotal evidence of Flock’s apparent desire to engage in self-destructive actions, just ask a cop.

In a public letter, Bellingham (MA) Police Chief Kenneth Fitzgerald stated that last year, Flock “tried to modify some of the terms of our service and access, while the contract was still in place.” He said this “raised concerns for me about our relationship with the company.”

Then, during a recent criminal investigation, Fitzgerald was further incensed when the department learned a feature called Flock “Free Form” was available through the cameras used by the department — an “Al-powered tool that can search video information using plain-language searches,” the chief said.

He said he was unaware of the AI features on the cameras and does not believe Flock “clearly explained or identified” them to the department.

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“Those features go beyond what most people would think of as a traditional license plate reader,” Fitzgerald said. “That concerned me because I had previously told the public, based on our understanding of the system, that our Flock technology was a license plate reader only.”

Looks like hubris to me — the thing that seems to plague nearly every tech company that secures a dominant position in the market. Flock assumes all cops will want their surveillance tech to be increasingly pervasive and invasive. So, it implements new features without giving anyone a head’s up and then plays the victim when legislators, the general public, and even cops themselves decide they no longer want Flock in their cities.

And that makes Belligham only one of four PDs in Massachusetts that have chosen to terminate Flock contracts since the beginning of this month. Flock is losing ground everywhere in the nation and due to its willingness to ignore everything up to this point, it’s not going to be able to prevent the bleeding from continuing indefinitely.

And while this is certainly good news for Americans’ privacy, rest assured there are plenty of smaller companies that aren’t nearly as nationally infamous waiting to fill the void Flock leaves behind.

Filed Under: 4th amendment, alprs, license plate readers, police misconduct, rights violations, stalking

Companies: flock, flock safety

ON-PREM

2016 and 2019 installations must meet the October 2025 baseline to reach cloud-hosted inboxes

Microsoft is upping the ante on Exchange Server security, warning that outdated on-premises systems will soon be blocked from sending email to Exchange Online.

From the second week of September, Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 machines that send email to Exchange Online through an inbound connector of the OnPremises type must be patched to the final public update baseline released in October 2025, according to Microsoft.

“This update level was released almost a year ago,” Microsoft stated, “and all organizations should have updated to it.”

Microsoft has been advancing its “oldest acceptable version” for some time, but this change takes the baseline to the final public update for Exchange 2016 and 2019. Any subsequent increase would leave only customers enrolled in the Extended Security Update (ESU) program or those who have migrated to Exchange Server Subscription Edition able to meet it.

Organizations may retain on-premises Exchange servers to support hybrid deployments, applications, or other systems that depend on them for email.

According to Microsoft, throttling and blocking apply only to servers sending email to Exchange Online through an inbound OnPremises connector. Other delivery methods are unaffected, and the policy does not necessarily cover “all servers in your organization.”

The company added: “This might change in the future,” which doesn’t sound sinister at all.

Administrators must balance the need to apply security patches promptly against the risk that an update introduces problems of its own – something Microsoft has, to put it delicately, caused in the past. 

Some administrators responding to the announcement were more than a little perturbed, although Microsoft has applied throttling and blocking to “significantly out of date” Exchange Server installations for several years.

The announcement gives administrators advance notice of a change Microsoft says would have happened anyway. “With or without this announcement, the change would have been made (just as it was made in the past, without any announcement),” explained Microsoft Principal Project Manager Nino Bilic.

“The bottom line is that admins really need to understand that updating Exchange should be done on time.” ®

Bose already sells one of the best-known open-ear earbuds on the market. Now an Indian consumer electronics company in which Bose owns a minority stake has unveiled a premium clip-on alternative developed in collaboration with Bose.

That makes the new Noise Master Buds Open, unveiled at IFA Berlin 2026, considerably more interesting than another pair of wireless earbuds joining an increasingly crowded open-ear category. The earbuds use a clip-on design that leaves the ear canal unobstructed and feature Sound by Bose technology, although Noise has not yet disclosed pricing or most of the final commercial specifications.

The official announcement is rather thin on those details, but public pre-launch documentation associated with the product’s FCC certification fills in some of the blanks. It lists 10mm drivers, Bluetooth 5.4, IPX5 water resistance, six-hour battery life and a weight of just 4 grams per earbud, along with Spatial Audio, Audio Boost and compatibility with the Noise Audio app.

Noise plans to start selling Master Buds Open in late September 2026, with pricing and individual market availability still to come.

Related Reviews:

Who Is Noise?

North American readers can be forgiven for asking.

Noise was founded in India in 2014 by Amit Khatri and Gaurav Khatri, initially selling smartphone cases before expanding into wireless headphones, earbuds, smartwatches and other connected devices. It has since become one of India’s largest wearable brands, with Counterpoint Research reporting that Noise maintained its leadership of India’s smartwatch market in 2024 while also ranking among the country’s largest TWS brands.

So this is not a tiny startup ordering generic Bluetooth earbuds from a catalog and hoping Instagram handles the rest. Noise has built a substantial consumer electronics business in India and has been working to expand internationally.

The relationship that matters most here began in December 2023, when Bose acquired a minority stake in Noise as part of the Indian company’s first outside funding round. The companies said they planned to collaborate on audio products and research, a partnership that subsequently produced the premium Master Series, including Master Buds, Master Buds 2 and the over-ear Master Buds Max.

Master Buds Open extend that collaboration into another rapidly expanding part of personal audio.

Not Actually Noise’s First Open-Ear Earbuds

There is one detail in the announcement that deserves clarification. Noise says Master Buds Open mark its entry into open-ear audio, but the company’s existing catalog already includes products such as ALT Buds Open ($99), Pure Pods ($55) and ALT Clip ($99) models using open-ear or clip-on configurations.

A more precise description is that Master Buds Open represent the Master Series’ first open-ear model and the first Noise open-ear product featuring Sound by Bose technology. That’s arguably more interesting anyway because Noise already knows how to compete at the affordable end of open-ear audio; this is its attempt to move the concept farther upmarket.

What Makes Master Buds Open Different?

The obvious differentiator is the Bose relationship, but we need to be careful about what that actually means. Noise says Master Buds Open were developed in collaboration with Bose and feature Sound by Bose technology, but it does not say they use Bose OpenAudio technology, Bose drivers or the acoustic hardware found inside Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

Existing Noise Master products describe Sound by Bose primarily in terms of acoustic tuning and collaboration. Until either company publishes more technical information about Master Buds Open, there is no reason to assume Bose supplied specific hardware. A logo is not a teardown.

What we can confirm is an unusually lightweight design. The pre-launch manual lists each clip at only 4 grams, which is notably lighter than many current clip-on rivals and could matter more in everyday use than another page of Bluetooth features.

Open-ear earbuds are frequently worn for hours during work, exercise or commuting, so reducing the amount of hardware hanging from the ear has obvious ergonomic benefits. The harder problem is acoustic: an open design has to produce convincing bass and intelligible vocals without the physical seal of an in-ear monitor while also controlling sound leakage.

That is where Bose’s involvement becomes particularly interesting.

FCC Documentation Fills In the Blanks

Noise says complete specifications will arrive closer to launch, but the user manual associated with FCC ID 2BKRS-BUDSOPEN01 already provides a useful preview.

Each Master Buds Open uses a 10mm driver and connects over Bluetooth 5.4, with a stated wireless range of 10 meters. The earbuds carry an IPX5 rating, making them resistant to sweat and water jets but not suitable for submersion, while charging is handled through a USB-C case weighing 52 grams.

Battery life is listed at six hours per charge and 22 hours total with the case, although those should be treated as pre-launch figures until Noise publishes its final specifications. The same manual also says the case can recharge the earbuds five times, which does not mathematically reconcile with the stated six-hour runtime and 22-hour total.

Rather than invent a sixth form of arithmetic, we’ll wait for Noise to clarify it.

The manual also identifies Spatial Audio and Audio Boost modes, along with support for the Noise Audio app. Still missing are final details about Bluetooth codecs, microphone configuration, multipoint connectivity and exactly how the spatial processing works.

Those are more useful questions than counting how many times the word “premium” appears in the press release.

Open-Ear Audio Is Getting Much Bigger

Noise is entering the premium end of a category with significant momentum. Omdia reported that global Open Wireless Stereo (OWS) shipments exceeded 10 million units during Q3 2025, up 69% year over year, while open-ear shipments also expanded rapidly in India during 2025.

The attraction isn’t difficult to understand. Open-ear earbuds allow listeners to hear their surroundings, avoid the plugged-ear sensation of conventional IEMs and can be more comfortable during long listening sessions.

The compromise has traditionally been sound quality, particularly bass extension and isolation. Every manufacturer now claims to have solved that problem, so our ears will ultimately have to settle the argument.

Two Main Competitors

Bose Ultra Open Earbuds — $299 MSRP

Yes, Bose is effectively competing with a product developed by a company in which Bose itself owns a minority stake. Audio remains a wonderfully uncomplicated business.

The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds use a cuff-style design and proprietary OpenAudio technology to position sound near the ear without blocking the canal. They offer Immersive Audio, Bluetooth multipoint, IPX4 water resistance and up to seven hours of standard stereo playback.

Bose launched them at $299, although promotional pricing can be substantially lower. Until Noise announces pricing, we cannot know whether Master Buds Open will compete directly on cost, but based on the rest of the Master Series it would be surprising to see them priced at Bose levels.

Sony LinkBuds Clip — $229.99 MSRP

Sony’s LinkBuds Clip attacks the same problem from another direction. The $229.99 clip-on earbuds use a 0.39-inch driver and include Bluetooth 5.3, multipoint connectivity, DSEE processing, 360 Reality Audio and IPX4 water resistance, with battery life rated at up to nine hours per charge.

Sony also includes a Sound Leakage Reduction mode, addressing one of the less charming aspects of open-ear audio: occasionally sharing your playlist with people who did not request it.

Sony has an established app, mature global distribution and years of wireless-audio experience. Noise may have a very different weapon if it can get the pricing right.

Noise Master Buds Open Specifications

The following combines Noise’s IFA announcement with information contained in pre-launch documentation associated with the product’s FCC certification.

*Listed in pre-launch product documentation and subject to confirmation when final commercial specifications are released.

Price & Availability

Noise says Master Buds Open will become available in late September 2026 through retail stores, major e-commerce platforms and gonoise.com. Pricing and specific regional availability have not been announced.

The product has already received FCC certification in the United States, and Noise operates a U.S. online storefront. That makes a U.S. launch plausible, but FCC approval should not be confused with confirmation that the product will actually be sold here.

We will update the story when Noise provides final U.S. pricing, availability and commercial specifications.

The Bottom Line

Noise is considerably more important in the global wearable market than many North American consumers probably realize, and its relationship with Bose gives Master Buds Open a hook most inexpensive open-ear products cannot claim.

The lightweight clip design is promising, the preliminary specifications are competitive, and Noise already has experience selling aggressively priced wireless products. The unanswered question is whether Sound by Bose can help close the sonic gap between affordable OWS products and premium competitors from Bose, Sennheiser and Sony.

Final pricing will matter enormously. If Noise can deliver genuinely good open-ear sound at the kind of pricing we’ve seen from the rest of its Master Series, Bose may have helped create a surprisingly dangerous competitor.

Corporate family gatherings could get awkward.

For more information: us.gonoise.com

Related Reading:

The Sony Bravia 5 is a mini-LED TV with crisp images, strong contrast and great gaming features. It occupies that level in Sony’s TV range where the brand has historically struggled to maintain its high standards. The Bravia 5, though, bucks this trend in pretty spectacular fashion.

The Sony Bravia 5 retains both mini-LED lighting and local dimming, for starters, as well as an 120Hz panel to keep gamers happy. Sony says the Bravia 5 LCD panels are still made to the brand’s Master Backlight Drive standard too, and they’re equipped with a full up-to-date version of the Google TV smart system.

PUBLIC SECTOR

DoD controls on mobile ad identifiers haven’t stopped military location data turning up for sale

The US military’s effort to prevent troops from being tracked by adversaries through purchased location data hasn’t worked as well as anticipated, and lawmakers want to know why.

US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) on Friday asked for an investigation by the Defense Department Inspector General into policies that have only partially stanched the flow of location data that allows military personnel to be tracked and targeted.

In May, Wyden, Harrigan, and a bipartisan group of 12 other members of Congress released details about how commercially purchased location data – often captured by mobile apps and advertising SDKs – can be used to identify where US military personnel gather and to target those locations. They noted that the DoD has been aware of this threat since at least 2016.

The lawmakers urged Defense Department CIO Kirsten A. Davies to take steps to mitigate this risk, including turning off advertising identifiers on DoD smartphones and issuing a policy requiring the disabling of advertising identifiers on all personal devices brought into DoD facilities or overseas.

Since then, various military branches have blocked advertising identifiers on government-issued devices. According to the letter, “several DoD components – the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command – confirm that they now disable advertising IDs on government-issued devices to protect their personnel from such threats.”

But that hasn’t entirely eliminated the availability of location data tied to US military personnel. Citing ongoing reports, Wyden and Harrigan want to know why location data pinpointing the movement of troops continues to be available.

“We commend these service branches for implementing this cybersecurity defensive best practice on government devices,” they said in their letter [PDF] to the DoD IG. “However, recent reports regarding the continued availability of commercial location data originating from DoD facilities raise troubling questions.”

The two lawmakers speculate about the reason DoD policies have fallen short. One possibility, they say, is that some parts of the DoD turned off their advertising identifiers only as recently as July. Another, they say, is that disabling ad identifiers may no longer be sufficient to limit the availability of location data. And the third is that the location data is coming entirely from the personal devices of DoD personnel and contractors.

Zach Edwards, staff threat researcher at Infoblox, told The Register in an email that it’s good to hear all the military branches have disabled advertising IDs on their phones because it will make members of the military and their families safer, especially those serving in combat zones overseas.

“This change will essentially ensure that military device location data isn’t being included in bulk data sales being done by numerous vendors,” he said. “It’s truly unfortunate that Google and Apple have not effectively reformed their mobile advertising IDs, even after it’s been well documented that it’s the primary piece of data being used by data brokers to connect up people’s mobile phone location data for bulk sales.”

Mobile advertising identifiers (MAIDs), Edwards explained, serve as join keys for tracking people – they can link different datasets.

“So one core benefit is that military data won’t be available for sale via data brokers, who will sell to literally anyone with a pulse and a credit card,” said Edwards. “But the other slightly less obvious benefit is that this MAID was also being broadcast to all ad systems participating in the auctions.”

Edwards said that while states like California, Vermont, Texas, and Oregon have data broker registries, he’s unaware of any Russian or Chinese ad tech vendors who have registered. And those companies, he said, partner with Western publishers and mobile apps to collect data anyway.

“I think it’s important to appreciate that these ad tech companies in Russia and China have also likely been getting MAID data from the programmatic ad tech auctions from members of the military, and companies in those countries have an obligation to share it with the state without any ability to appeal or provide any external notice,” he said. ®

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

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Filed Under: daily deal

Most smartwatches get glued shut, live a short life, and then sit in a drawer. Google’s Pixel Watch 5 still refuses that fate. iFixit’s teardown team opened the 45 mm model and handed it a provisional 9 out of 10 on the smartwatch repairability scale, the same mark last year’s Pixel Watch 4 earned, with a few small changes that make the job even clearer once you are inside.

Opening the case feels more like servicing a dive watch than taking apart a little phone. Interior latches are released with two Torx screws, the rear sensor glass is removed, and reusable O-ring gaskets replace a smear of adhesive for water resistance. IP68 and 5 ATM certifications remain in place since the seals provide the function that glue typically accomplishes. You don’t need a heat gun to get started. You’ll need a driver, some patience, and the knowledge not to lose a screw on the carpet.

Google Pixel Watch 5 (41mm) – Android Smartwatch – Obsidian – Wi-Fi

• The new Google Pixel Watch 5 offers a smarter way to a healthier you.[1,2]; Designed for Gemini Intelligence, get proactive help, and personalized…
• Precision-crafted to do it all: The Google Pixel Watch 5 features the domed Actua 360 display with scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass and up to 40 hours…
• Metrics that matter: Advanced sensors help you stay ahead of your health and wellness; and Google Pixel’s most accurate heart rate tracking is…

The most common type of repair is battery replacement, and Google has simplified that process. After the latches are removed, a few green screws guide you toward the vibration motor and ultimately the cell itself. The color coding is new to this generation. The 45 mm watch has a 465 mAh battery, which is 2.2 percent higher than last year’s 455 mAh unit, and the printed face of the battery even directs you to Google’s repair hub if you stumble in without a plan. Pull the connector, lift the cell, and the exhausted battery work is complete. iFixit has already produced a guide specifically for this exchange.

Screen work takes longer, but you still have a removable display and a gasket that can be replaced while the casing is open, which is important because those rings wear. Before the panel can be removed, you must first remove several screws of various lengths, a bracket, and a press connector. According to iFixit, that procedure is the only spot where a future Pixel Watch may become simpler. The site already has guides for the screen, back sensor glass, battery, and vibration motor, so you won’t have to guess based on a paused video.

The mainboard is mounted within the chassis using a single screw and a press connector on the reverse side. LTE variants feature a small antenna pogo pin on the edge. Drop that pin, and you’ll be on your knees for the rest of the afternoon. The hardware around that board has been upgraded: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated platform, 64 GB of storage, and 3 GB of memory. Google claims a 20% speed increase over Pixel Watch 4. None of the additional silicon comes in the way of disassembling the watch.
[Source]