• MapQuest is pulling the curtain back on automatic license plate readers.
• Users can now locate Flock Safety and other surveillance cameras on MapQuest's app.
• Critics of the tech have raised privacy concerns and potential misuse.

MapQuest, the OG software to find your way from point A to point B, is taking on the surveillance state.

The free mapping service unveiled a new feature for its mobile app on Thursday that allows users to turn on a "surveillance layer" on a map to locate known automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, along their route.

MapQuest says the app can identify cameras developed by Flock Safety, Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions, and PlateSmart, among others.

"The Roads Have Eyes!" the company said in its BlueSky post announcing the new feature.

MapQuest's General Manager Doug Berger said drivers using the service inspired the company to add the feature.

"We build around what drivers ask for, and showing surveillance camera locations is one of our users' top three requests," Berger told Business Insider in a statement."

License plate readers capture images of vehicles and then use machine learning to turn details such as license plate numbers, car make, color, and model into searchable data. They're commonly found at intersections, parking lots, roadways, highways, and neighborhood entrances, businesses, and private properties.

Law enforcement agencies initially embraced license plate readers to help them locate vehicles and identify suspects. Retail outlets have also used Flock cameras as part of their security efforts.

A major backlash against the cameras, however, has led stores, police, and towns to dial back their use.

Critics say the cameras raise privacy concerns and that the data they collect can be misused or shared with federal immigration officials. Some people who've opposed the cameras have staged protests, launched petitions, and even forcibly removed them.

The city of Tempe in Arizona said in August it shut down its Flock Safety camera network and planned to terminate its contract. Other towns followed suit.

"These cameras have helped our police officers do their jobs, and we don't discount that," Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said in a public statement at the time. "But the risk of misuse is too great. We have to be able to provide public safety in a way that maintains the trust of our community. For Tempe, that means taking these cameras down."

Flock says its license plate readers do not use facial recognition and that customers — meaning the ones putting up the cameras — can control access to and sharing of the data collected. Amid growing backlash, the company has tightened its privacy safeguards, including reducing the time data is retained from 30 days to 7 days.

"They are built to focus on the vehicle involved in an incident and the details that can help distinguish it from other vehicles on the road," Flock told Business Insider in August.

MapQuest first launched in the late 1990s, allowing users to map out a route and print directions. The release of Google Maps eventually obliterated the service. As it tries to stay relevant, it has jumped at opportunities to leverage prevailing public discourse.

In August, MapQuest briefly topped app stores after it — unlike Google — rebuffed President Donald Trump's executive order to rename "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America."

• Preorder sales for Apple's iPhone Duo kicked off on Friday.
• Unless you pounced, don't expect to receive your shipment in time for Christmas.
• Shipping dates have slipped into 2027 due to current demand and Apple's initial supply, which was expected to be limited.

Anyone purchasing an Apple iPhone Duo online as a Christmas gift may want to find a backup plan.

Expected shipment dates for new orders of the highly anticipated smartphone model have been pushed back to January 25, 2027. That includes iPhone Duos across all available carriers, colors, and storage sizes. For those who pounced on preorders when they went live early Friday morning, shipments will start arriving as early as October 23.

For latecomers, there is always the Hunger Games that is lining up early outside an Apple store on launch day to try to snag in-store inventory. The cheapest version of the foldable phone, with 256 GB of storage, costs $1,999. The model with 2 TB of storage is priced at $3,199.

While early demand for the iPhone Duo is certainly a factor in pushing back shipping dates, it's not unusual for new Apple products to see extended shipment times. Apple is also navigating "limited" supply due to supply chain constraints, Bloomberg previously reported.

Then-CEO Tim Cook talked about general supply constraints on Apple's broader product lineup during the company's third-quarter earnings call in July.

"If you look forward into the current quarter, the September quarter, we continue to expect high levels of demand," Cook said, speaking of broader product demand. "However, with less flexibility in the supply chain, we expect the impact from the supply constraints to increase significantly sequentially."