Tech

In a changed VC landscape, this exec is doubling down on overlooked founders

Published

5 hours ago

14 February 2026

Much of Silicon Valley has spent years chasing mega-rounds and buzzy AI deals. Meanwhile, Stacy Brown-Philpot is running Cherryrock Capital like a throwback to venture capital’s earlier days, writing smaller Series A and B checks to founders that larger firms routinely overlook.

The former TaskRabbit CEO and decade-long Google veteran launched Cherryrock a year ago after seeing what she calls a persistent gap: access to capital for “underinvested entrepreneurs” building software companies at the crucial growth stage.

“When I left TaskRabbit, I took some time off to figure out what was next and saw this gap in the market, which was access to capital, particularly for underinvested entrepreneurs,” Brown-Philpot told TechCrunch. She’d originally come to the Bay Area 25 years ago, planning to become a VC and even writing her Stanford Business School essay about it. After spending a decade at Google and leading TaskRabbit to a successful exit to IKEA, she’s finally back to that original plan.

She circled back to it for a reason. Before launching Cherryrock, Brown-Philpot was a member of the investment committee for the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, a $100 million vehicle started in 2020 to back underserved entrepreneurs. That experience proved there was no shortage of overlooked founders.

SoftBank itself sold the Opportunity Fund to its leadership team in late 2023, divesting from the diversity-focused initiative. Brown-Philpot, meanwhile, doubled down, and launched her own fund. By the time she closed Cherryrock’s debut fund in February 2025, she already had more than 2,000 companies in her pipeline.

Cherryrock is targeting 12 to 15 investments from its first fund — a concentrated approach and stark contrast to the seed funds that make dozens of bets, or massive funds that write nine-figure checks. Brown-Philpot’s also taking her time; a year after announcing the fund, she and her team, including cofounder Saydeah Howard, who spent nine years at the venture firm IVP, have backed just five companies, putting them about a third of the way toward their goal. In an era when many funds race to deploy capital almost as quickly as it’s raised, Brown-Philpot’s measured pace is another throwback to an earlier generation of VCs.

Brown-Philpot’s focus on “underinvested” founders — a careful choice of words in today’s political climate — means backing entrepreneurs who might not fit the typical Silicon Valley mold.

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When asked directly about the current political environment, where DEI has become a lightning rod, Brown-Philpot is unfazed. “It doesn’t change the pitch at all,” she said. “When we look at the people who decided to back Cherryrock, like JPMorgan and Bank of America…these are financial institutions who expect to generate a return. Our job as investors is to do just that.”

In addition to those investors, Cherryrock’s LP roster includes Goldman Sachs Asset Management, MassMutual, Top Tier Capital Partners, and Melinda Gates’s Pivotal Ventures. Some of these have stepped back from explicit diversity pledges amid pressure from the Trump administration. Yet Brown-Philpot may find herself in an unexpectedly advantageous position.

A new diversity reporting law in California requires VC firms with a California nexus to report demographic data on their portfolio companies’ founding teams, with the first deadline in April. Unlike some corporate diversity initiatives that have faced legal challenges, the law focuses on transparency rather than mandates, requiring reporting but not quotas. For a firm like Cherryrock that’s already tracking and prioritizing investments in diverse founders, compliance is “table stakes,” as Brown-Philpot puts it. “You accomplish what you measure.”

Brown-Philpot’s perspective is informed by her vantage point across multiple institutions. Beyond Cherryrock, she sits on the boards of HP, StockX, and Stanford University — roles that give her insight into both enterprise buyers and the next generation of founders. At Stanford, she’s watching students navigate questions about AI’s impact on employment. “What I see on campus is the students are charting a path and finding a way to create opportunities for themselves,” she said.

Her portfolio reflects her thesis. One investment is Coactive AI, led by Cody Coleman, an MIT grad with advanced degrees in philosophy and engineering from MIT and Stanford. The company provides multimodal AI infrastructure to the media and entertainment industry, a sector now under intense scrutiny following controversies around AI-generated content. Cherryrock led Coactive’s Series B alongside Emerson Collective.

Another bet is Vitable Health, founded by Joseph Kitonga, a Thiel Fellow and Y Combinator alum. The Philadelphia-based company provides on-demand, primary care-based health insurance to employers and hourly workers – the kind of population Brown-Philpot came to know well as the CEO of TaskRabbit during its last years as a standalone company. Kitonga “is the exact kind of founder that we want to back,” Brown-Philpot said. “He does what he says he’s going to do.” Brown-Philpot first invested at the seed stage of Vitable through her work with the SoftBank Opportunity Fund.

When asked about her operating philosophy, Brown-Philpot is pragmatic about exits. “It’s very difficult to go public,” she said. “Most companies don’t go public, they do get acquired.” It’s a refreshingly honest take in an industry that often overpromises on IPO prospects. She points to TaskRabbit’s sale to IKEA as proof that the right acquisition can create lasting value.

As for 2026, Brown-Philpot’s priority is simple: “We are actively deploying capital.” She’s looking for Series A and B companies that have achieved product-market fit at scale, letting founders define what that means. And while the broader venture ecosystem debates the future of diversity initiatives, she is focused on finding great founders, wherever they are.

“I’m from Detroit,” she says. “Hard things are hard, but we know how to do hard things.”

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‘Clueless’ -inspired app Alta partners with brand Public School to start integrating styling tools into websites

Published

3 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Much has changed for Jenny Wang, the founder who’s bringing “Clueless” fashion tech to life.

Last year, her company, Alta, raised $11 million in a round led by Menlo Ventures to let users create digital closets and try on their clothes with their own virtual avatars. It’s a tech once seen only in movies, most notably in “Clueless,” where Cher styles and plans her outfits using computer technology. Alta is similar to that, allowing users to plan and style outfits using the latest AI innovations.

A slew of big names participated in Atla’s round last year, including models Jasmine Tookes and Karlie Kloss, Anthropic’s VC arm Anthology Fund, and Rent the Runway cofounder Jenny Fleiss.

TechCrunch caught up with Wang during New York Fashion Week to talk about how the company has expanded since that round.

For starters, the product is officially in the app store; Time and Vogue named it one of the best innovations of last year, and Wang said more than 100 million outfits have been generated on the platform since its launch in 2023. It has partnerships with Poshmark and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, with more partnerships to be announced soon.

“Alta’s own app also features thousands of brands that users can shop from,” Wang said.

Right now, the company is focused on building app and website integration experiences for brands, she said, where customers can try on a designer’s clothing using a personalized Alta Avatar. This week, the company unveiled its first integration collaboration, teaming up with Public School, a storied New York City brand.

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“Shoppers can style looks from the new collection on their own Alta avatar,” Wang said.

She met the Public School team — Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne — through the founder of Poshmak, who is also an angel investor in both companies.

“Public School designers Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne had been looking for an AI partner and virtual try-on avatar solution, and Dao-Yi has been an Alta app user himself,” Wang said.

Public School actually went on hiatus for a few years, with this NYFW marking its grand re-debut. When asked, the founders of the brand said they rediscovered their voices and what they wanted to say.

“We have to look at tech as a partner in the business today,” Chow told TechCrunch, adding, “It’s not 2015 anymore,” so the team wants to take advantage of the latest technological developments. “We want to be thoughtful on how we use tech and AI,” he continued, “not as a design tool but as a tool to extend our storytelling and a tool to interact with the consumer and have them experience the brand even if they can’t do so in person.”

Wang said this is one of the first instances of a designer embedding personal avatar and styling technology into its own website. Near the bottom of Public School’s product page, there is an icon that says Style by Alta. Clicking that takes the customer to Alta for them to then style their avatars and test out how Public School clothing would look on them, should they purchase.

Users on Alta’s standalone app can also access Public School through Alta’s app. Wang said the goal is for Alta to integrate more experiences like this into other brands and websites, so Alta users can try on clothes on other websites even while outside the Alta app.

“Right now, a user would have to add a potential purchase into their Alta wishlist, then style outfits and try on their avatar, versus being able to do that directly on the brand website.” (For every site but Public School, that is.) “The goal is to bring their community on a new journey to engage with and shop the brand.”

Many major fashion brands, like Zara and Balmain, have already experimented with digital avatars. Wang said what makes Alta different here, especially compared to Zara, is that Alta avatars can put on at least 8 items within seconds, whereas Zara avatars can wear only four and often take around two minutes.

Overall, demand for virtual avatars has increased. Wang considers Alta both still the “Cluless” technology that it started out with, and a digital avatar business.

“The consumer Alta app is the ‘Clueless’ closet, while the enterprise Alta experience allows shoppers to style pieces and try the outfits on their pre-existing Alta avatar,” he said. Eventually, Wang said she wants Alta to be the “personal identity layer for the future of consumer AI and shopping.”

For agentic commerce to truly work, she said, “We need a data layer that understands the shopper’s style preferences, such as their closet, past purchases, and their avatar, likeness, and body, which is Alta.”

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That SSSS On Your Boarding Pass Could Mean TSA Will Swab Your Electronics

Published

17 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

TSA agents inspecting bags in the airport

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No one wants to be stuck in the airport, as long lines, delayed flights, and frustrated passengers can make even the shortest trip feel much longer. Despite security tech projects that could change airport screening, the process can be even more of a hassle if you have SSSS on your boarding pass. This code means that you could be subject to enhanced screening that may involve the swabbing of your personal belongings, including electronics.

SSSS stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection, and it’s a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designation. It’s used to identify passengers who need additional screening by the TSA. Passengers labeled SSSS typically don’t know the reason why, and neither do the TSA agents in charge of the screening. Often, it’s due to random selection, though the TSA can choose passengers for additional screening at its discretion. The DHS could also be selecting passengers using the Secure Flight program, which identifies suspected terrorists or other suspicious individuals.

Neither the DHS nor the TSA has publicly confirmed that the SSSS designation and the accompanying electronics swab are linked to Explosive Trace Detection (ETD). However, ETD screening is being carried out in some airports. It involves swabbing a passenger’s hands or belongings at the TSA checkpoint. The swab is then analyzed by a special device that can detect even the tiniest amounts of trace residue.

Enhanced airport screening and how to avoid delays

Diverse Security Officers Check Passengers After Metal Detector Scanning Gates

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Air travelers can be repeatedly selected for enhanced screening by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because their identification is similar to someone on a government watchlist. Because of this, the DHS developed the TRIP program, which generates a Redress Control Number (RCN) for affected travelers, which can be used when booking future flight reservations to avoid misidentification. However, having an RCN doesn’t mean that a passenger won’t get pulled for enhanced screening for other reasons.

In fact, anyone going through the airport can be subjected to further screening, as the TSA can pull you from the line when you’re going through a checkpoint. Even wearing baggy clothes could get you patted down, and your bags may be checked. The TSA doesn’t publicly disclose all its reasons for performing further screening, but it’s clear from what it has published online that it reserves the right to conduct such screenings whenever it feels necessary.

While it might be impossible to completely avoid such delays at the airport, TSA is expanding the precheck system to make the process smoother. You can also take some steps yourself that might help. First, empty your pockets and remove any big jewelry. Place your laptop in a bin before it goes through the scanner, make sure your devices are charged and ready to power on, and as you’re leaving the checkpoint, be sure to collect all of your items so you don’t have to backtrack later.

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‘I’m tired of that narrative’: Seattle VC pushes back on tech exodus talk

Published

32 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

The AI House in Seattle held a launch party when the startup hub opened last year along the waterfront. (GeekWire File Photo / Taylor Soper)

Enough with the hot takes about Seattle’s tech downfall.

That’s the message from Jacob Colker, managing director at the AI2 Incubator, who published a LinkedIn post Thursday pushing back on what he described as a “breathless narrative” that Seattle is one tax bill away from decline.

Colker didn’t cite specific posts or headlines. But debate has intensified in recent months as Washington lawmakers consider tax proposals that some business leaders warn could hurt the region’s innovation economy, including a bill targeting startup exits and the so-called “millionaire’s tax.”

“The math doesn’t math,” he wrote, arguing that a few points of capital gains tax don’t outweigh the region’s deep bench of AI talent, investment dollars, space leadership, fusion startups, biotech momentum, and quality of life.

He added: “Should we be thoughtful about tax policy? Heck yeah. Should it be tied to better stewardship of spending? Darn right. But the breathless narrative that Seattle is one bill from collapse is not serious analysis.”

His post sparked plenty of reaction.

“been reading the same slop since I moved here 20 years ago… The ecosystem keeps getting better and I’m not leaving either.” — Brian Glaister, exec at Axon
“When I moved to Seattle in 2007, a large part of that decision was bc the state constitution guaranteed no income tax. I moved here from CA. This change in policy is also why I will leave. Taking 20% of my stock is real and it’s a reason to leave.” — Aaron Bird, CEO at Inflection.io
“When I moved to Seattle 20+ years ago this same theme was banging around. Since then, hard to count how many multi-billion $ companies have been built and the pre-seed/early stage investment capital scene is SO much better. Bullish on Seattle.” — Robert Pease, managing partner at Cascade Seed Fund
“love this. two things can be true at the same time!” — Kirby Winfield, founder at Ascend

The debate over the state of Seattle’s startup scene comes as some founders relocate to San Francisco amid the AI boom.

Colker helps run AI2 Incubator, one of Seattle’s most prominent early stage startup investors. The firm launched an $80 million fund in October and operates AI House, the startup hub that opened last year along Seattle’s waterfront and serves as AI2 Incubator’s headquarters along with event space and co-working offices.

“Seattle isn’t perfect,” Colker wrote in his post. “No city is. But the sky isn’t falling. And I’m proud to triple down on this region — taxes or not.”

Related reading:

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Tech

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints, Answers for Feb. 15 #510

Published

46 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition pays homage to the Winter Olympics. The purple category is tough, as always — and today it expects you to hunt out hidden words inside longer words. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it free online.

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Lillehammer is another one.

Green group hint: Great White North.

Blue group hint: Think Chloe Kim.

Purple group hint: Look for a hidden word.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Previous Winter Olympic hosts.

Green group: Canada men’s hockey players.

Blue group: Snowboarding terms.

Purple group: Ends in a piece of winter sports equipment.

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The completed NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 15, 2026.
NYT/Screenshot by CNET

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is previous Winter Olympic hosts. The four answers are Albertville, Chamonix, Oslo and St. Moritz.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Canada men’s hockey players. The four answers are Celebrini, Crosby, Marner and McDavid.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is snowboarding terms. The four answers are cork, frontside, goofy and McTwist.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a piece of winter sports equipment. The four answers are cheapskate, chopstick, Lipinski and milestone.

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Lola Blankets Are 45 Percent Off This Presidents’ Day Weekend

Published

60 minutes ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

If you’ve spent more than five minutes on TikTok, you’ve probably heard someone rave about Lola Blankets. They’re draped over couches in Get Ready With Me videos, folded at the foot of perfectly made beds, and name-dropped in podcast ads.

I wanted to be skeptical, but the hype is sadly real; we tested the blankets at WIRED and have included them in multiple gift guides and roundups, from the Best Weighted Blankets to the Best Housewarming Gifts to the Best Gifts for Mom.

From February 14 through February 16, Lola Blankets are 45 percent off with code WINTER45. No exclusions. This is the kind of discount that makes the math very compelling. Buy two, one for yourself and one as a present for a loved one, or a furry loved one (see below).

Courtesy of Lola Blankets

Lola Blankets

The Original Lola

Lola Blankets come in two styles: the Original and the Weighted Blankets. WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell adores the Original (in Malibu Blue). It comes in an assortment of colors, patterns, and collaborations, plus five sizes: baby, medium, large, Lola XL, and travel. The double-sided fabric is an Oeko-Tex Standard 100-certified faux fur blend of 95 percent polyester and 5 percent spandex, with four-way stretch. It’s zero-shed, stain-resistant, and double-hemmed for durability. I can confirm that durability matters. Mine has survived everyday use and the affections of my cat, who has fully claimed it as her throne BTW.

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Courtesy of Lola Blankets

Lola Blankets

Weighted Lola

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China’s optical clock now officially helps set global time, promising accuracy to one second over billions of years

Published

1 hour ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

China’s strontium optical clock now participates directly in international atomic time calculation
Optical clocks operate at higher frequencies than caesium, allowing finer measurement resolution
Accuracy claims reach one second over billions or tens of billions of years

China has received formal international recognition for an ultra precise optical lattice clock after its calibration data was accepted into the global timekeeping system.

The approval allows the country’s NIM-Sr1 strontium atomic optical lattice clock to participate directly in the calculation of International Atomic Time, a role previously dominated by a few nations using caesium based standards.

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Gear News of the Week: Samsung Sets a Date for Galaxy Unpacked, and Fitbit’s AI Coach Comes to iOS

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Samsung will unveil its next flagship smartphone lineup on February 25 at its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco. The company sent out invites earlier this week. The event will begin at 10 am Pacific (1 pm Eastern), and it’ll be livestreamed here.

Rumors abound that suggest the Galaxy S26 series—which will include the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra—won’t have any major changes from their predecessors. They’ll likely be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with some minor charging speed improvements and minor upgrades to the camera hardware.

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Artificial intelligence features will likely sit at the forefront, likely with a few new Gemini tricks. However, one big new feature is a privacy screen built into the smartphone itself. It’ll let you selectively block parts of the display from people around you. Unfortunately, even with only minor upgrades, there may be a price increase for these phones stemming from the RAM shortage. As usual, Samsung is letting you reserve a Galaxy S26 device right now. You’ll get a $30 credit to use when preorders open up, and a chance to win a $5,000 gift card at Samsung.com.

Don’t expect to see a Galaxy S26 Edge. Samsung’s super-slim Edge phone from 2025 wasn’t a hit, and leaks suggest a successor has been canceled. Still, the Edge debuted in May 2025, so we could still see a follow-up around then. All we know is that it likely won’t make a showing at this Unpacked event. Samsung usually announces other products outside of smartphones, and this year, that may be a new pair of Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds.

We’ll be on the ground bringing the news to you live.

Fitbit’s Personal Health Coach Arrives on iOS

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Months after Fitbit’s Personal Health Coach launched in public preview for Android users, the Gemini-powered health service is now finally available to iOS users. To try it out, you must have an active paid or trial Fitbit Premium subscription and a phone that runs iOS 16.4 or higher. (You can check out the full list of requirements here.) Personal Health Coach is also expanding to English speakers in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.

As I mentioned in my preview of the service, I would be wary of divulging too much personal health information to a large corporation, even one that promises not to use it for advertising. I also found that it’s easy to start consulting with the Coach for advice on every part of your day, which your IRL family and friends will find weird and annoying. However, it is the easiest, most helpful, and most accommodating of the AI coach services that I’ve tried so far, and $10/month for Fitbit Premium is cheaper than a real running coach. As always, your mileage (literally) may vary. —Adrienne So

iOS 26.3 Makes It Easy to Switch to Android

iPhone showing a prompt to delete data beside an Android phone showing a welcome message

Apple released iOS 26.3 this week for the iPhone, and the hot new feature might surprise you. The company is making it easier to switch to Android phones, thanks to a collaboration with Google, which also recently added a similar feature for switching from Android to iPhone.

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Is safety ‘dead’ at xAI?

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

Elon Musk is “actively” working to make xAI’s Grok chatbot “more unhinged,” according to a former employee who spoke to The Verge about recent departures from Musk’s AI company.

This week, following the announcement that Musk’s SpaceX is acquiring xAI (which previously acquired his social media company X), at least 11 engineers and two co-founders said they’re leaving the company. Some said they’re departing to start something new, and Musk himself suggested this is part of an effort to organize xAI more effectively.

But two sources who left the company (at least one of them before the current wave) reportedly told The Verge that employees have become increasingly disillusioned by the company’s disregard for safety, resulting in global scrutiny after Grok was used to create more than 1 million sexualized images, including deepfakes of real women and minors.

One source said, “Safety is a dead org at xAI,” while the other said that Musk is “actively is trying to make the model more unhinged because safety means censorship, in a sense, to him.”

They also reportedly complained about a lack of direction, with one saying they felt xAI was “stuck in the catch-up phase” compared to competitors.

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‘I’m grieving’: OpenAI has switched off ChatGPT-4o, and angry users are backing a #keep4o campaign to restore it

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

OpenAI has officially disabled GPT-4o in ChatGPT
A lot of users are feeling emotional and upset about the switch
There’s an official #keep4o campaign underway

We knew the moment was coming, and now it’s happened: OpenAI has officially disabled the GPT-4o model inside ChatGPT, pushing all users towards the GPT-5 alternatives, and it’s hitting a lot of users hard.

A substantial chunk of ChatGPT users prefer the more emotional and warmer ChatGPT-4o experience, as it’s more suited to AI companionship and bonding. Now it’s no longer available, there’s been a widespread outpouring of sadness and anger.

Reddit. Other posts talk about AI friends being “erased” and a sense of “emotional and creative collapse” without the older models.

There’s a lot of criticism for OpenAI online too, including accusations of hypocrisy – the company often claims to want to protect the mental well-being of its users, but it’s also left a lot of people feeling sad and lost this weekend.

February 12, 2026

There is an ongoing campaign to keep GPT-4o available, run through Reddit and the #keep4o hashtag on social media. A Change.org petition to bring the model back has reached almost 21,000 signatures at the time of writing.

That may not seem a significant number of people compared to the millions of users who log into ChatGPT every day, but it reflects the attachment that many have formed with the ‘personality’ behind the GPT-4o model.

While to some it might seem strange to form a connection to an AI chatbot, for others it’s very real and meaningful – there are even research papers on the phenomenon, which talk about “deep socio-emotional attachments to AI systems”.

That’s something that all AI companies and society as a whole will have to grapple with in the future. It’s clear that AI bots are now capable enough to function as friends, therapists, and more – but it’s less clear just how beneficial that’s going to be for us in the long term.

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Amazon-owned Ring cancels Flock deal amid controversy

Published

2 hours ago

15 February 2026

NewsAdmin

The smart doorbell provider faced blowback for its Super Bowl TV ad last Sunday.

The Amazon-owned home security camera provider Ring has cancelled an upcoming partnership with Flock Safety, a surveillance tech provider to US police forces.

The pair agreed last October to collaborate on Ring’s ‘Community Requests’ feature, which allows Ring users to share footage with local police when requested, if they choose to do so.

In a statement yesterday (12 February), Ring said that after “a comprehensive review”, it found that “the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated”, and therefore was cancelling the partnership.

The smart doorbell platform attracted controversy this week around an ad broadcast during TV coverage of the Super Bowl on 8 February publicising another Ring feature, ‘Search Party’, which was unrelated to Flock.

The ad showed multiple Ring cameras throughout a neighbourhood being activated in unison to search for a missing pet. Online criticism of the feature notes that this network of surveillance could also be used to track people.

Flock’s best-known offering to US police forces is a network of cameras nationwide that can record and identify car registration plates and upload them to a centralised database which can be accessed by police to track vehicles.

The company recently denied that it works with the US federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after reports emerged alleging that the agency was using the company’s technology as part of its operations. “ICE does not have direct access to Flock cameras, systems, or data,” read a Flock statement.

Both Ring and Flock said that because their planned integration never launched, no video belonging to Ring customers was ever sent to Flock.

Ring added: “We remain focused on building tools that empower neighbours to help one another while maintaining strong privacy protections and transparency about how our features work.

“We’ll continue to carefully evaluate future partnerships to ensure they align with our standards for customer trust, safety and privacy.”

Flock said it “remains dedicated to supporting law enforcement agencies with tools that are fully configurable to local laws and policies”, and that it would continue to engage directly with “public officials and community leaders”.

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