Despite the recent momentum, advocates like Marthews worry that too much of the pushback is limited to Flock itself. Even now, competitors like Axon smell blood in the water, and they’re moving in to capitalize on the widespread public scrutiny of the company. It highlights what privacy advocates see as a critical vulnerability in the current tech backlash movement — the tendency to focus on one or two highly villainized companies instead of the technologies and systems themselves.

“… I think it’s an important moment because reformers are talking more and more about ‘guardrails,’ when the proper solution is abolition.”