Boston Terminates Flock Contract Over Nationwide Data Sharing

A municipal government has discovered that the communication platform Flock was configured to enable its “nationwide lookup” feature, contrary to a clause in the city’s contract that expressly required the feature to be disabled. The nationwide lookup function allows users to search for contact information across the entire United States, a capability that the city’s data‑protection policy deemed unnecessary and potentially risky. The oversight was identified during a routine audit of the platform’s settings.

The city’s contract with Flock stipulates that the nationwide lookup feature must remain turned off to safeguard residents’ privacy and comply with local data‑handling regulations. By enabling the feature, the city inadvertently exposed a broader data search capability than authorized. City officials have notified Flock’s support team and are working to revert the setting to its mandated state while reviewing internal controls that allowed the configuration change.

City leadership has pledged to conduct a comprehensive review of its technology governance processes to prevent similar lapses. The incident underscores the importance of stringent oversight when deploying third‑party communication tools in public sector environments. The city will report the corrective actions taken to its oversight board and to the public in an upcoming transparency briefing.