Florida County Won’t Investigate Mystery Cameras. Let’s Not Get Nosy.

Good news for privacy in St. Lucie County, Florida: you can apparently collect your unauthorized surveillance equipment without enduring a lot of personal questions.

The county found 12 unpermitted Flock cameras during a removal effort. Police claimed five. The other seven disappeared without their owners being identified publicly, Ars Technica reports. For a technology devoted to identifying people, this is a remarkably discreet exit.

Flock says it knows who owned the cameras. It won’t tell residents, citing its practice of not disclosing customers’ deployment details. At last, a surveillance company prepared to take somebody’s privacy seriously.

The county gave owners 30 days to remove the equipment without questions. Its spokesman said the aim was to clear the right-of-way, not identify the owners, and that resources for an investigation were lacking. “We accomplished that goal,” he said.

It’s reassuring to know that if you install something to watch passing strangers, local government may eventually offer you the courtesy of looking the other way while you retrieve it.

Residents still don’t know who collected information about them or where it went. Perhaps the people who retrieved the cameras would like to return for a brief exit interview.