Chad Marlow is a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. His work focuses on privacy, surveillance and technology policy. He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia and a bachelor's degree in government from Connecticut College. He is the primary author of the ACLU's Digital Dystopia report on student surveillance.
Case
Flock Safety demands that Joshua Michael remove his surveillance map and related material. Michael calls the legal pressure a threat to public-interest research. Named participants disagree over whether the publication deserves protection or enforcement.
Role at the time: ACLU senior policy counsel
Statement summary
Marlow criticizes Flock's concern for its own privacy and says efforts to protect Flock's privacy would be better spent protecting the privacy of everybody else.
“[I]t is ridiculous that a company that clearly does not care about other people's privacy at all is suddenly incredibly worried about its own privacy, and and I would say that if there is a group out there that is actively trying to protect Flock's privacy, maybe their efforts would be better concentrated on protecting the privacy of everybody else”
The reference point is whether Flock should require Michael to remove his surveillance-camera map. Marlow told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it is ridiculous for a company that does not care about other people's privacy to be suddenly worried about its own, and that efforts to protect Flock's privacy would be better spent protecting everyone else's. That rejects the takedown push and fits Condemned. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization, which would fit a dispute over how the map is described without rejecting its removal.
Statement dates: September 27, 2026
Statement dates: September 27, 2026
