Source link

Mac owners upgrading to macOS 27 will need to replace their AirPort Time Capsule for Time Machine backups. We picked five diskless NAS enclosures that cost less than $300 to fit the bill.

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on September 14 without support for Apple Filing Protocol, or AFP. AirPort Time Capsule and AirPort Disk depend on AFP for Time Machine backups.

The company’s updated support document says Time Machine continues to work with third-party network-attached storage devices that support Server Message Block, or SMB. The five options below support network backups from a Mac, although availability and sale prices can change.

These prices cover the enclosures rather than complete storage systems. Buyers must add at least one compatible drive and connect the NAS to an existing router through Ethernet.

Advertisement

The macOS change doesn’t disable the AirPort’s router or Wi-Fi hardware. It specifically prevents Macs running macOS 27 from using an AirPort Time Capsule or AirPort Disk as a Time Machine destination.

Some of these will work as routers, properly configured. We leave this, and a debate about the security of doing this, as an exercise for the reader

They also don’t provide Wi-Fi, like a Time Capsile does. The Time Capsule is so far out of support at this point, though, you’ve probably already moved on from that.

Anyone with files stored only in an existing Time Capsule backup should restore them before upgrading. Keep the old backup intact until the replacement NAS has completed a full backup and successfully restored a test file.

Advertisement

Here’s what we’ve done. We took the original retail price of the fifth generation Time Capsule, adjusted to 2026 dollars, and subtracted a bit more than $100 for the drive of your choice, and rounded down to $300.

All of these network attached storage devices come in under that cost.

TerraMaster F2-425 offers the most processing headroom

The TerraMaster F2-425 provides two SATA drive bays, an Intel N5095 quad-core processor, 4GB of DDR4 memory, and 2.5GbE networking.

TerraMaster allows owners to expand the memory to 16GB, giving the F2-425 room for services beyond file storage. It supports Docker, hardware-assisted 4K video transcoding, and TerraMaster’s TRAID storage system.

Advertisement

TOS 7 includes a Time Machine Backup tool that turns an authorized folder into a network backup destination. Time Machine Backup is disabled by default and must be enabled during setup.

TerraMaster F2-425 2-Bay NAS review: It uses two bays with tool-free sleds

Our review gave the F2-425 four out of five stars for its performance, memory expansion, and virtualization support. Its two-drive limit restricts the available RAID configurations, but RAID 1 can protect a Time Machine volume against the failure of one drive.

Buy TerraMaster F2-425

The F2-425 is the strongest option for someone who needs network backups now and may later add a media server, Home Assistant, or other self-hosted software.

The TerraMaster F2-425 is available from B&H Photo and Amazon.com for $254.99 at press time, down from $299.99.

Advertisement

Ugreen NASync DH2300 is the easiest starting point

The Ugreen DH2300 targets people buying their first NAS. Its iPhone-assisted setup removes much of the address hunting and browser configuration that can make network storage intimidating.

An eight-core Rockchip RK3576 processor and 4GB of fixed memory run UGOS Pro. Connectivity includes Gigabit Ethernet, USB-C, two USB-A ports, and an HDMI output capable of driving a 4K display.

Ugreen NASync DH2300 top-down view of the two drive bays

UGOS Pro supports Time Machine backups from a Mac over SMB. Ugreen also includes phone backups, remote file access, media applications, and local photo organization.

Buy Ugreen NASync DH2300

The DH2300 doesn’t support Docker or memory upgrades, so it isn’t intended to become a demanding home server. Our review awarded it four out of five stars and found that its hardware was fast enough for secure file serving and ordinary household backups.

Advertisement

The DH2300 is the most approachable choice for someone who wants automatic Mac backups without extensive NAS administration.

The Ugreen NASync DH2300 is available from Ugreen direct for $227.99 and from Amazon.com, where pricing can vary.

LincStation E1 combines SATA and NVMe storage

The LincStation E1 combines two SATA drive bays and two M.2 NVMe slots. LincPlus calls it a four-bay NAS, although only two bays accept conventional hard drives.

The combination supports inexpensive hard drives alongside faster solid-state storage. A Rockchip RK3568 quad-core processor and 4GB of fixed memory run LincOS.

Advertisement

The enclosure also provides 2.5GbE, HDMI, Wi-Fi 5, and three USB-A connections.

LincPlus LincStation E1 rear USB-A, HDMI, and Ethernet ports

Time Machine worked with the unit we tested, but LincPlus doesn’t document the feature as clearly as TerraMaster, Ugreen, Synology, or Qnap. Buyers should confirm that current LincOS firmware still exposes an SMB-compatible Time Machine destination.

Buy LincStation E1

LincPlus doesn’t offer a macOS management client. Mac owners must administer the NAS through its local web interface, while the company’s iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows software handles built-in remote access.

The unusual mix of SATA and NVMe storage gives the E1 more flexibility than a conventional two-bay NAS. Its limited processor and developing software make it a better fit for basic storage than demanding server applications.

Advertisement

The LincStation E1 is listed through the LincPlus store for $169, down from $219. An Amazon listing is also available, with price and stock subject to change.

Synology DiskStation DS223j emphasizes mature software

The Synology DS223j is a two-bay diskless enclosure. Its 1GB of fixed memory and Gigabit Ethernet limit heavier workloads, but Synology’s established DiskStation Manager software remains its main advantage.

The DS223j uses a 1.7GHz Realtek RTD1619B quad-core processor. Both bays accept 3.5-inch SATA hard drives, while 2.5-inch drives require optional holders.

Synology also supports Btrfs and snapshots on the DS223j

DiskStation Manager supports Time Machine through SMB and lets an administrator place storage quotas on individual backup users. Quotas prevent one Mac’s backup history from consuming the entire shared volume.

Buy Synology DiskStation DS223j

Advertisement

Synology also supports Btrfs and snapshots on the DS223j. File self-healing requires a storage pool with redundant data, such as mirrored drives, rather than Btrfs alone.

The DS223j is the conservative choice for users who value documentation, software maturity, and a large application ecosystem more than faster networking.

The Synology DiskStation DS223j is available from B&H Photo for $209.99 and from Amazon.com, where pricing can vary.

QNAP TS-216G puts 2.5GbE near the price limit

The Qnap TS-216G combines two SATA drive bays with a 2.5GbE port. It uses a 2GHz Arm Cortex-A55 quad-core processor and 4GB of memory.

Advertisement

Qnap recorded SMB transfers of up to 291MB per second in laboratory testing with SATA SSDs, RAID 1, 2.5GbE, and a Windows Server client. A Mac connected through ordinary Gigabit Ethernet won’t reach those speeds.

The TS-216G officially supports Time Machine, and Qnap provides instructions for creating a dedicated backup user and shared folder through QTS. Its setup guide directs users to enable SMB 3 before selecting the shared folder in Time Machine.

Buy QNAP TS-216G

Qnap also includes snapshots, mobile photo backups, USB one-touch copying, and an NPU for recognizing faces and objects in stored photos. Its hot-swappable bays allow a failed drive to be replaced without shutting down the NAS when the storage configuration can tolerate the failure.

Advertisement

The TS-216G is the best fit for a household with several Macs or an existing 2.5GbE network. Its extensive settings and applications provide flexibility, but they also create a steeper learning curve.

Qnap recorded SMB transfers of up to 291MB per second

The Qnap TS-216G is available from B&H Photo and Amazon.com for $299.

A drive connected to your router isn’t a universal replacement

Some consumer routers can share an attached USB drive as a Time Machine destination, but support and safety depends on the exact model. Check the router’s manual for explicit Time Machine over SMB support before relying on it for macOS 27 backups.

Owners who bought and configured their own routers may have compatible hardware. Most ISP-provided gateways don’t offer the required storage and backup controls, so customers using one probably won’t have much luck there.

Drives and RAID increase the final cost

All five NAS devices above are sold without user storage. Adding one drive provides the lowest initial cost, while two matching drives allow RAID 1 to preserve access if one drive fails.

Advertisement

RAID 1 writes the same data to both drives, but it doesn’t protect against deletion, theft, fire, malware, or failure of the NAS itself. Irreplaceable files still need another local or off-site copy.

The AirPort Time Capsule combined a router and a hard drive, making a Time Machine destination in one device. We’re still testing the third-party patch that adds SMB3 to the older units, making them compatible again.

Ultimately, they are just too old to keep relying on.

These replacements require more setup, but they are much newer, provide replaceable drives, larger potential capacities, modern SMB support, and more control over Mac backups.

Advertisement

Source link

Sometimes a hacker has a specific sort of problem, and uses the tools they have to solve it in a way that just might be helpful to someone else. That’s the case with [Matvey Kukuy]’s Coffee Steam Dryer (V2), which performs the very specific job of safely swallowing up expelled steam and water from an espresso machine’s steam wand.

Steam wands are used to froth milk into a velvety texture, and some machines require purging the wand before using it for best results. Where does the resulting jet of steam and spatter of superhot water droplets go? Not the machine’s problem. That’s for the user to deal with, and [Matvey] decided to address it by designing and 3D printing a tool.

The pipe-like object works by having steam jet into the open top (printed in ABS or ASA for heat resistance) where the device redirects the hot gas and captures any expelled water in the process. The steam flows through expansion chambers, dragging cool air along with it in the process, until it ultimately gets redirected away from the user.

By the time steam exits the outlet, some has condensed and the remainder has cooled and slowed down enough to not be a worry.

Advertisement

It’s the second version of the device, and we like how it has no moving parts and can be disassembled for cleaning and drying.

Coffee is an area that is rich with hacker activity, from 3D-printed micro-brew machines to completely DIY roasters but tools like this show how improving the coffee workflow can also be beneficial.

Advertisement

Source link

Source link

Source link

Luis Echeverri Urrea/Shutterstock

A dishwasher’s purpose is to clean your dishes. As such, it’s understandable if you might assume there’s no need to clean the dishwasher itself. However, there are actually several good reasons to add this task to your regular to-do list. For example, although a dishwasher typically shouldn’t smell badly if you’ve been using it properly, a thorough cleaning can fix the problem if a dishwasher does develop odors. On top of that, cleaning your dishwasher can remove mineral buildup and generally promote more reliable overall performance. You also don’t need any special equipment or materials for the job. Although you should always check the owner’s manual of your dishwasher to confirm the manufacturer doesn’t warn against certain cleaning methods, it’s generally possible to clean a dishwasher with some distilled white vinegar and baking soda.

Your first step is to clean out your dishwasher’s filter. Check the manufacturer’s instructions to determine how to do this, as it’s not always possible to remove a dishwasher’s filter, depending on the model you have.

Next, place one to two cups of distilled white vinegar in an upright, dishwasher-safe container in your dishwasher’s lower rack. Run a regular wash cycle without detergent, and turn off the drying cycle. This step helps to clear away grease.

Advertisement

After you’ve done that, sprinkle a cup of baking soda on the inside floor of the dishwasher and run a hot water rinse cycle. Again, you can skip the drying cycle. Open the door and let the interior air dry when the cycle is complete. The baking soda should remove odors.

Advertisement

Important information about cleaning your dishwasher with baking soda

Proxima Studio/Shutterstock

It’s worth noting that you can buy cleaning tablets designed specifically to clean a dishwasher. The baking soda method might simply be more appealing because it involves using items you likely already have on hand.

Along with making your dishwasher smell more pleasant and potentially improving its performance, regular dishwasher cleaning could also save you money in the long run by guarding against the need for costly dishwasher repairs. Regular cleaning might even extend your dishwasher’s lifespan.

You also don’t necessarily need to clean your dishwasher that often. Cleaning it with vinegar and baking soda once a month should be sufficient to get the job done. In fact, overexposing your dishwasher to vinegar can cause damage due to vinegar’s acidity.

In the meantime, you might also wonder whether using a dishwasher is necessary when hand washing is always an option. If so, be aware that using a dishwasher is more sanitary than hand washing. A dishwasher can clean even more thoroughly when the unit itself is clean inside.

Advertisement

Source link

Source link

“Become ungovernable” is a phrase that has traveled around the world and morphed in meaning over time, but in the last few years has basically become an internet culture joke meme, with vaguely anarchist seasoning.

But, now, in the Trump administration, it has apparently taken on a Schrodinger-esque meaning as either… a slogan for libertarian-leaning MAGA folks… or proof that someone is antifa. Or we just live in a dumb stupid world where nothing matters anymore.

As you may have heard, last week Donald Trump hosted the first-ever GOP “midterms” convention, a desperate ploy to get people excited about the midterm elections as Trump’s approval ratings hit such horrifying lows that even some Republicans are trying to distance themselves. Trump doesn’t have anything productive or helpful he can do to stop the slide caused almost entirely by his own terrible decision-making, and thus he falls back on the only thing he knows how to do: hold rallies to pretend that everyone loves him.

It was apparently difficult to find willing speakers (many top Republican officials came up with excuses to skip the shindig), but he did get Ross Ulbricht to speak. As someone who covered much of the Ross Ulbricht saga — from his arrest for operating the Silk Road Tor marketplace, to the stories of him attempting to hire hitmen to kill off various people, to his “maybe someone else did it!” legal arguments, to his eventual pardon from Trump — I’d say the pardon was a near-perfect encapsulation of Trump 2.0’s transactional corruption.

There were some parts of the Ulbricht prosecution that seemed problematic, and the lifetime sentence was arguably excessive given the evidence, but the attempted murder claims were a pretty big deal. And while some of Ulbricht’s defenders argued he was just a platform operator who shouldn’t be liable for what users did — an argument we’re usually quite sympathetic to — Section 230 never applied to federal criminal charges anyway. And remember: Trump has regularly campaigned on throwing drug dealers in jail, if not executing them outright.

But, freeing Ulbricht became a kind of Libertarian Party cause célèbre, and Trump was desperate for votes in 2024, so to try to bring over some of the increasingly authoritarian wing of the Libertarian Party (as oxymoronic as that may sound) he promised to pardon Ulbricht. Free the guy who set up a giant illegal drugs and weaponry marketplace, in exchange for some votes. Trumpism in a nutshell.

Notably, when Trump spoke in front of the Libertarian Party convention to make this promise, he did so in front of a “Become Ungovernable” banner.

Last week, when Ulbricht spoke at Trump’s midterms rally, he spoke in front of the same banner:

Ulbricht didn’t have anything interesting to say, just misleadingly claiming that he and Trump were both the “target of a weaponized government,” which only makes sense if you haven’t actually looked at the evidence against Ulbricht. It’s not a “weaponized” government when you actually engaged in criminal activity, dude.

But that banner background really caught my eye, because just a few months ago, with Trump’s DOJ trying to cook up charges against the mythical “antifa” cells that MAGA keeps insisting exist, the DOJ claimed that it had found and indicted an antifa cell in Minnesota. And a key part of the evidence? One of the people had posted to Facebook “become ungovernable.”

With these new charges, Rosen said, “the evidence will prove it all out”.

Rosen showed social media posts and videos of a couple of the people indicted to underscore the allegations that they intended to impede law enforcement. In one video, a man declares he is antifa and discusses bringing guns to a demonstration. He showed another post of a defendant saying people needed to “become ungovernable”.

Advertisement

Literally, the US Attorney highlighted the “become ungovernable” Facebook post in his press conference explaining why those charged were “antifa.”

You could argue that the 2024 Trump appearance in front of the banner doesn’t count. It wasn’t Trump’s convention, he had no say in the backdrop, and it happened two years before his DOJ decided that the phrase was crucial evidence of antifa conspiracy membership. Sure. Fine.

But here we are now, just a few months after one of Trump’s own handpicked prosecutors stood at a press conference and declared that “become ungovernable” was evidence of antifa membership, Trump’s own MAGA convention has plastered that same phrase across the main stage — behind the guy who ran an illegal drugs market and tried to hire assassins to take out his enemies.

It’s almost like nothing actually matters any more, other than whether you’re loyal to Trump or not. And thus, I guess, the only thing one can possible do is… ahem… become ungovernable.

Source link

Here’s a riddle: Why did a Goshen Police Department officer search 6,474 automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks, representing data from 82,413 cameras, on May 7, 2025? 

If your answer is “I don’t know,” it turns out you’re 100% correct. The officer left the letters “idk” in the search field where cops are supposed to document the reason for the search.

When law enforcement and tech salespeople pitch ALPRs to city councils, they stick to a familiar script. They trumpet the technology, which is often provided by private companies like Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, or Axon, as an essential tool for solving high-stakes crimes, such as car jacking, kidnapping, or murder.

But when you strip away the carefully curated talking points, the data continues to reveal a different (and frankly, ridiculous) story. An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock Safety systems shows that officers across the country are spying on drivers for completely nonsensical “reasons.” Police are routinely searching the Flock database without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like “LOL” (short for “laugh out loud”), “LMAO” (short for “laughing my ass off”), “sexy,” and “idk” (short for “I don’t know”) to access sensitive ALPR location data.

And in some cases, officers are just mashing keyboard buttons rather than articulating the nature of their searches.

Flock Safety claims it has improved its system by requiring officers to select from a dropdown list of crimes before running a search–but that only makes it easier for officers to hide improper searches behind the veneer of uniformity. The system does not require proof that the dropdown reason actually matches the true purpose of the search. 

With no warrant requirements, limited guardrails, and deficient audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine, permitting the tracking of the movements of everyday citizens for low-level complaints, personal whims, and sometimes, seemingly, for the lols.

A Documented Culture of Abuse

ALPR misuse isn’t a new phenomenon; it has dominated headlines for more than a year. We already know that officers regularly abuse these systems to stalk past and potential romantic partners. We’ve seen ALPRs used to surveil protests, which can chill First Amendment-protected dissent, and seen officers try to use an ALPR system to track down a woman seeking an abortion.

Typically, we learn about these uses from documents called “network audits,” which are long spreadsheets that document all the searches that run through an agency’s system. It is not unusual for even a small agency to have a record of millions of searches from thousands of external agencies across the United States.

We’ve also uncovered horrific systemic profiling, with more than 80 law enforcement agencies using terms like “roma” and “g*psy” to target ethnic Romani people—often without any mention of a suspected crime. And when police aren’t using ALPRs for stalking or profiling, they routinely use them for extreme low-level investigations: verifying whether a student lives in a specific school zone, running employment background checks, following up on loud music complaints, or targeting a motorcyclist simply for holding a cell phone.

But somehow, it gets worse.

The Absurdity of Documented Search Reasons

EFF’s analysis of Flock Safety’s ALPR search data obtained through public records requests has uncovered a disturbing trend. In the absence of judicial oversight, officers are inputting ridiculously unserious terms to justify their searches. Here is just a snapshot of what police consider a “reason” to track someone’s vehicle:

Surveillance as a Joke

Audit logs sample

• Barberton Police Department (Ohio) employees ran numerous searches between March 2024 and May 2026, listing “LOL” or “lol” as the reason.
• Harris County Sheriff’s Office (Texas) employees ran several searches between April and May 2026 listing “LOL” or “lol” as the case number.
• Lake County Sheriff’s Department (Ind.) employees ran searches in July 2025 for “LMAO.”
• Richmond Police Department (Calif.) employees ran over multiple searches in November 2024 for “Hehe.”
• Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (Calif.) employees ran searches in 2024 for “Haha.”

“Don’t Know, Don’t Care” Approach

• Kankakee County, Sheriff’s Office (Ill.) employees ran searches (2023–2025) for “idk” or “idk lol.”
• Goshen Police Department (Ind.) ran searches (May–June 2025) for “idk.”
• Fishers Police Department (Ind.) ran searches in May 2025 for “blah.”
• A Pasco Police Department (Wash.) employee searched for at least four different license plates, leaving “robbery i don’t remember the case number leave me alone” in the reason field.
• The San Diego Sheriff’s Department (Calif.) ran searches in May 2025 with “idk” in the reason field. 
• More than 30 agencies ran more than 6,300 searches with “TBD” (short for “To Be Determined”) as the “reason.” These included the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the Manteca Police Department (Calif.), and the Baton Rouge Police Department (La.). The Priceville Police Department (Ala.) alone ran 1,954 searches with reasons “TBD.” 

Insults and Inappropriate Searches

• Belton Police Department (Mo.) ran searches (Aug–Sept 2024) for “d*ckhead.”  (asterisk/redaction our own)
• A Manteca Police Department (Ill.) employee ran searches in June 2024 for “sh*thead”  (asterisk/redaction our own)
• A Norton Police Department (Mass.) employee ran searches in December 2024 for “Sexy.”
• Corona Police Department (Calif.) employees ran searches (2023–2025) for “weird” or “WEIRD KID.”
• Thornton Police Department (Colo.) employees ran several searches in October 2025 for “driving around being weird.”
• A Columbus Police Department (Ohio) officer ran searches in 2023 for “idiot.”
• A Michigan City Police Department Officer (Ind.) ran searches in June 2025 listing “f*ck this new search engine.” (asterisk/redaction our own)

Button Mashing 

Button mashing audit logs sample

One of the more alarming discoveries we found in the network audit data is a large number of “reasons” that appear to be nothing more than an officer mashing buttons. These typically involve a nonsensical long string of characters from the same line or area of the keyboard.

For example: 

• An Eatonton Police Department (Ga.) employee ran searches with reasons such as HJKNUILH, uiokjk.kuj, GJLHBNMN, hjhbnmg, and iuohjk.
• An Atlanta Police Department (Ga.) employee ran searches with asdfga as the reason. 
• Bay County Sheriff’s Office (Fla.) employees ran searches with reasons such as  ;’lkjh, /lkjh and lkjhg.
• A Brown County Sheriff’s Office (Wis.) employee ran searches with reasons such as gyghkkghghjkghjk, ggyjgyujdsrdghdfhjkghjghk, HJHJKLHLKHJK, hjjkjkhjkljk and JHLJKHHJKL.
• A Lake County Sheriff’s Office (Ohio) employee ran searches with reasons such as asdfg and ghjkl, and a second officer ran a series of searches that started off with “investigation” but then devolved into button mashing, including:
  • Investigatafy, Investigatafyd, Investigatafydl, Investigatafydlh, investigatafydlhj, investigatafydlhji, investigatafyfdlhji, investigatafyfdlhjigkfgty, investigatafyfdlhjigkfgtyy, investigatafyfdlhjij, investigatafyfdlhjik, investigatafyfdlhjikf, investigatafyfdlhjikfg, investigatafyfdlhjikfgty, investigatafyfdlhjikfgy and investigatafyfdlhjiy.
• A Moore Police Department (Okla.) ran searches with reasons such as jhjhjkhj, jhjkhjh, jhjkhjkh, jkhhkjhjk, Jkhjkhj, Jkhjkhjk, Jkhjkhjkh, jkhjkhkjh, jkjkhjkh, kjjkhjk, loiuiou, ukjhjkh and ulkuiou.
• A Westlake Police Department (Ohio) employee ran searches with reasons such as fghjkl, ghjkl, and lkjhg.
• A Kentucky State Police employee ran searches with reasons such as mhghjk, mhgnhjkj, nbvcxcvbn, nmbvcbnm, and sdfghj. 

It’s hard to imagine a situation where these characters add up to a legitimate police code. However, it’s easy to imagine an officer cutting corners with a text field they know no one is checking, especially if they are accessing the Flock Safety app from their phones while driving. 

How Police Departments Are Responding

When confronted with these flagrantly unserious searches, police departments offered a mix of bureaucratic deflections and excuses. 

In response to EFF’s request for comment, Thornton Police Department (Colo.) claimed the system didn’t require officers to select from a defined list at the time, but it does today. They also audited the “driving around being weird” searches, claiming they were all actually for “legitimate public safety purposes.” 

Other police departments we reached out to for comment shared the following: 

• Richmond Police Department (Calif.) stated that the officers involved with the “Hehe” and “idk” searches were “counseled.”
• Corona Police Department (Calif.) noted that the employees searching for “WEIRD KID” are no longer employed by the city for unrelated reasons.
• Columbus Police Department (Ohio) pointed to their union contract, stating their Inspector General only has jurisdiction to investigate incidents within the last 90 days, giving the officer who searched for “idiot” in 2023 a free pass.
• Belton Police Department (Mo.) promised a “thorough investigation” of the “d*ckhead” searches through existing union and personnel policies.
• Manteno Police Department (Ill.) said it will “review the searches and the circumstances surrounding them thoroughly” and “take whatever action is determined to be appropriate based on the facts and circumstances.”
• Manteca Police Department (Calif.) said: “Since the beginning of 2026, our personnel have been directed that the reason field for ALPR searches must identify the law enforcement purpose for the search and that ‘TBD’ is not an acceptable entry.” The spokesperson added: “The presence of ‘TBD’ in the reason field in prior searches should not, by itself, be interpreted to mean that the associated search was conducted without a legitimate law enforcement purpose or that reasonable suspicion was required.” EFF has asked the agency to clarify whether it verified the hundreds of “TBD” searches were legitimate, and we will update this post with a response if we receive one. 
• Fishers Police Department (Ind.) said that the detective that searched for “blah” has done so “when he has issues with the technology” and that the term “is used when he is actively using the technology to solve a criminal case, and the technology is not moving fast enough for him.” The department shared that “he has been told to use “test” in the future.”
• The Cobb County Police Department (Ga.) acknowledged that “TBD” stood for “To Be Determined” and is no longer an acceptable search reason: “We have instituted a new policy that took place after the dates listed in your audit that now require, in addition to a criminal offense and a reason, a case number for any search conducted on FLOCK.” 
• The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department says that it checked the cases where “idk” was used and determined “there was an active investigation associated with the searches.” The department said that this was due to the reason field being optional at the time (which was true on a software level) but California law has required officers to document a purpose for accessing ALPR data since 2015. The sheriff’s spokesperson says the reason field is now mandatory, and involves a dropdown menu. 

Other agencies did not respond to EFF’s requests for comment. We will update with responses as they are received.

The Cop Out of the Drop-Down Menu “Feature Update”

Under the guise of streamlining audit logs, in late 2025, Flock safety announced that they will be replacing the required, free-text search “reasons” with a pre-populated dropdown menu of generic offense categories. Since this update, officers are no longer required to type out why they are digging through a driver’s movement history, and instead can select a pre-packaged option like “Traffic infraction” or “Other” in half a second. 

Replacing the requirement to articulate the reason for the search with one-click searches is a loss for transparency, but also may explain why audit logs including the searches we highlight in this piece significantly decreased since early 2026. 

The Punchline is Our Privacy

Entries like these defeat transparency, undermine accountability, and entirely fail to satisfy what many jurisdictions require by law or policy: an actual reason for the search. And this keeps happening because police use ALPRs as a convenient shortcut around constitutional privacy safeguards. 

In other contexts, such as searches of cell phone location information, police have to go to a judge, demonstrate probable cause, and get a search warrant. But because laws and courts have not caught up with the pace of ALPR technology, police do not do the same before searching ALPR databases. Instead, they are given free rein to track a person’s movements without a sliver of judicial oversight.

As we mention in our piece about the use of ALPR surveillance for low-level investigations, if a police chief stood in front of a city council and asked for permission to install hundreds of cameras just so his officers could investigate the high crime of “haha,” they would be laughed out of the room. The same could be said if an officer asked a judge to sign a warrant to track someone down for “LOL.”

The fact that these searches were not only missed by the agency supervising the officer, but by the often thousands of other agencies whose systems were searched, demonstrates how agencies cannot be trusted to oversee themselves. 

Mass surveillance is incompatible with a free society, and especially so when the people with access to this data are treating it like a joke. This ALPR mass surveillance—the indiscriminate, continuous collection and retention of location data on every driver, regardless of suspicion—should not exist. But because it does, EFF continues to urge courts and state legislatures to immediately step in and impose strict, enforceable restrictions to rein in this abuse. At an absolute minimum, this means mandating rigid data deletion deadlines and an ironclad warrant requirement. 

If police want the power to track a person’s movements, they must be required to convince a judge with evidence and probable cause. They should not be able to bypass the Constitution with a search for “haha.”

Republished from the EFF’s Deeplinks blog.

Source link

Source link