This news and the timing of it seems like it is trying to elicit your response. Flock has been getting a lot of bad press recently.
The first batch of firing that happened in GA was not because of Flock safeguards, it was because an internal auditor said let's look at your new system.
If they cared about privacy, they would have had such a system in place not something that is just being rolled out.
Second, these people are getting caught because “The activity identified during the audit revealed that the employees searched their own license plates or those of a family member/acquaintance, and not random members of the public,”
A fair reading of that says it is ok to look up information on random members of the public. I feel better already.
If the bar is set at random people, a friend of a friend looking up the info and getting it back to you would get around the safeguards, back to the old buddy in the department.
i always hoped the "buddy" would be the lever that goes "no, that's crossing the line between friendship and ethics, please rethink your request"
something an artificial buddy will happily do anyway when you promise that your grandmother is on the line