Flock and Cyble Inc. Continue to File False Notices
When a government contractor pays a company for "Takedown Services" to prevent transparency in government (Part II)
If you missed yesterday’s Part I, go read that first. As of right now, December 17, 2pm Cornfield Standard Time, Cloudflare is still reviewing the notice from Part I. The same Cyble, Inc. employee has now filed a similar notice with Hetzner; haveibeenflocked.com’s current hosting provider.
The full text of the abuse notice is below, as well as the complete response.
Stay tuned.
Notice (Part 2)
Form Data =============================================== Name: Thomas Siah E-Mail: response@cyble.com Language: en Forward report: ALLOWED =============================================== Abuse data =============================================== Source: haveibeenflocked.com Category: phishing Description: ------------------------------------
Cyble Inc. represents Flock Group Inc. (hereinafter ‘our Client’),in the monitoring and worldwide enforcement of its brand presence.
Our Client is the registered owner of the trademark “Flock Safety” including USA under registration number 6842958. Please see the official website https://www.flocksafety.com/.
We recently became aware of the URL of which you are the named administrative contact. The website publicly and deliberately releases extensive, sensitive information obtained from Flock .
Additionally, the website may be used to phish the general public on the name of Flock Safety which is a serious concern to notify you.
Infringing URLs :5.78.142.181
The Response
Dear Hetzner Abuse Team,
This complaint should be dismissed. It is the second frivolous takedown attempt by the same complainant within days, and—like the first—it fails to identify any specific violation of Hetzner’s Terms of Service, any applicable law, or any actual abuse.
The complaint is labeled “phishing” but describes no phishing. The complainant:
- Identifies no deceptive content
- Identifies no attempt to harvest credentials or sensitive data
- Identifies no impersonation of Flock Safety
- Provides no evidence supporting his speculation that the site “may be used to phish”
The site’s only input fields accept license plate numbers (which are hashed client-side before transmission and cannot be harvested) and general search queries. There is no login, no credential collection, no payment processing.
The complainant mentions Flock’s trademark registration but alleges no trademark infringement. Any references to Flock Group, Inc. constitute nominative fair use—the same principle that permits Consumer Reports to name the products it reviews.
The website is a transparency and accountability tool. It indexes government records released through public records requests (FOIA equivalents), makes them searchable, and provides interpretive analysis.
These records—typically audit logs showing how law enforcement agencies use Flock’s surveillance network—are released by government entities, not obtained through any unauthorized means.
This is journalism, and it serves the public interest. Flock’s practices are subjects of legitimate public concern, as documented by:
- ACLU: https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/flock-roundup
- EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/how-cops-are-using-flock-safetys-alpr-network-surveil-protesters-and-activists
- 404 Media: https://www.404media.co/ice-taps-into-nationwide-ai-enabled-camera-network-data-shows/
- Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/flock-uses-overseas-gig-workers-to-build-its-surveillance-ai/
- US News: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2025-11-20/georgia-police-chief-charged-with-using-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-and-harass-people
Examples of the government-released records indexed on the site:
- https://www.muckrock.com/foi/mount-prospect-8189/flock-safety-alpr-audits-2025-mount-prospect-police-department-186694/files/
- https://www.muckrock.com/foi/prosser-8485/flock-safety-search-audits-network-sharing-and-general-order-prosser-police-department-186565/
Flock itself publicly extols such transparency, describing audit logs on its own website as “the living record that shows every search, every audit, every moment where technology intersects with justice.” (https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/policy-pulse-transparency-control-and-the-path-forward)
The complainant, Thomas Siah of Cyble Inc., has now submitted two successive takedown requests in short order. Neither complaint:
- Demonstrates any relationship between Cyble Inc. and Flock Group, Inc.
- Establishes authority to act as Flock’s agent
- Identifies any specific unlawful content
- Provides evidence of any actual abuse
This is a transparent attempt to use Hetzner’s abuse process to suppress speech critical of a surveillance company—the kind of abuse that hosting provider policies are not designed to facilitate.
I respectfully request that Hetzner dismiss this complaint and note the pattern of frivolous submissions from this complainant.