August 2026

“You can sort of start to piece together somebody's life, I think. You know, you can tell maybe where they go to work, if they're dropping their kids off at school, who they're associating with, their religious affiliation. All sorts of things can start to be inferred that way.” — Kris Maher, The Journal.

Maher had just been shown Flock's software tracking one car across a two-week window, and the host asked what picture the same search would paint of you. This is his answer. Asked afterwards what Flock knows about him, he said he did not know, and guessed it could count his trips to the grocery store.

The Journal. · 2026-08-20 Listen to the episode → More from Kris Maher →

Transcript

The Journal. Around 08:24 into the episode
Kris Maher

He showed me how you can track a particular car over a time period, like say 15 days.

Imani Moise

This is what privacy advocates and critics are concerned about. Think of all the places you may have driven over the last two weeks. What kind of picture would be painted of who you are?

Kris Maher

You can sort of start to piece together somebody's life, I think. You know, you can tell maybe where they go to work, if they're dropping their kids off at school, who they're associating with, their religious affiliation. All sorts of things can start to be inferred that way.

Imani Moise

So, Chris, what do you think Flock knows about you based on where you've been driving recently?

Kris Maher

You know, that's such a good question. I don't know. It might know how many times I go to the Giant Eagle grocery store or to the gym. To

Imani Moise

the Wawa.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

More from The Journal.

“…StubHub's actual product never actually was tickets. It was trust. It was, we can trust us to be the filter through which people sell tickets. And that guarantee was the whole business.” — Hanna Krueger, The Journal.