MapQuest adds a Map Options toggle that plots cameras from Flock and ten other companies

A driver opens MapQuest to check traffic and finds a new option in Map Options, listed next to traffic and incidents ^[2]. Switch it on and the map plots known outdoor surveillance cameras and license plate readers ^[1].

MapQuest announced the layer with the line "The Roads Have Eyes!", according to CarScoops as cited by TNW ^[5]. The layer is one toggle covering 11 named companies ^[9]. One of them, Flock Safety, is among the largest US makers of license plate readers, TNW reports ^[14].

The reports cover one app's toggle. MapQuest's downloads jumped in September after it declined to follow Google Maps and Apple Maps in relabelling Lake Ontario as Lake America ^[7]. The reports do not say how many people use the layer, how a crowdsourced entry is checked, or whether Google Maps or Apple Maps has a similar layer. We think the evidence supports the claim that an app with a September download jump added a layer, and stops short of a category.

Engadget's account of what users will do with the layer is an expectation. Engadget wrote that the layer "may be helpful in illustrating how pervasive these things are in your area" ^[10]. It added that the layer is "useful information to have for those who are trying to rid their neighborhoods of surveillance cams" ^[12]. It also wrote: "You might not be able to easily avoid these cameras on your commute or other usual routes" ^[11].

Coverage is the other limit. The layer shows known devices ^[1], so an empty street on the map does not mean no camera is there.

The timing matters to the companies listed. TNW says Flock's cameras are spreading fast across the US and face growing pushback ^[14], and that a US judge ruled a police Flock search was unconstitutional mass surveillance ^[15].

For anyone who runs cameras, or builds a map, two questions sort any layer like this. The first is who can change a pin: only the camera's owner, or anyone with the app. The second is what a person can do after seeing one: look, or act. By CarScoops' account MapQuest sits in the "anyone" row ^[13], and the layer as reported is for viewing and adding devices. If anyone can edit a pin and nobody can act on it, a wrong pin costs little. Once a pin can lead to an action, a wrong one has a cost, and we'd expect the camera's owner to want a way to dispute it.