Class action alleges Home Depot illegally shared California license plate data with federal agencies

On April 2, 2026, five California residents filed a class action lawsuit against Home Depot U.S.A. and The Home Depot in the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento. The complaint alleges the retailer installed automated license plate recognition cameras across all 233 of its California stores without giving shoppers adequate notice or maintaining a legally compliant privacy policy.

What the cameras allegedly capture

Automated license plate recognition uses cameras and software to automatically read and record license plate numbers. However, the lawsuit claims these cameras capture far more, including the make, model, color and distinguishing features of every vehicle entering or leaving a California Home Depot parking lot. The cameras also reportedly tag data points with a precise timestamp and GPS location then send them into a centralized database.

Flock Group, which does business as Flock Safety, primarily built and operated the cameras. The broader Flock network collects more than 20 billion license plate reads per month with a single law enforcement search querying thousands of camera networks simultaneously.

Who can search the data?

Home Depot explicitly states it doesn't share license plate data with federal law enforcement. However, the lawsuit claims law enforcement agencies nationwide, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Air Force installations can access the data.

The complaint cites three separate investigations that reportedly support its claims:

  • A November 2025 KPBS investigation independently confirmed Home Depot gives police access to its license plate readers in San Diego County.
  • Public records the Electronic Frontier Foundation obtained from the Johnson County, Texas, sheriff's office confirmed law enforcement could access Flock cameras at dozens of Home Depot stores in Texas, using the same network architecture deployed at California stores.
  • An EFF analysis of 12 million Flock search records allegedly found more than 50 agencies ran hundreds of searches connected to First Amendment protest activity.

How the privacy policy allegedly falls short

California's Automated License Plate Recognition Privacy Act requires entities operating ALPR systems to publicly post a privacy policy meeting specific standards. The complaint claims Home Depot's policy fails on at least three counts: it names no custodian responsible for the system, provides no defined data retention period and places no restrictions on federal, out-of-state or immigration enforcement access.

Plaintiffs cite a Feb. 5, 2026, California Court of Appeal decision in Bartholomew v. Parking Concepts Inc. stating that collecting ALPR data without a compliant policy constitutes harm under the law even without proof of data misuse.

The legal claims

The lawsuit brings seven causes of action:

  • California's ALPR Privacy Act, unauthorized access and use of ALPR information and failure to implement a code-compliant privacy policy
  • Invasion of privacy under the California Constitution
  • Intrusion upon seclusion
  • California's Unfair Competition Law on three separate grounds (unlawful, unfair and fraudulent)
  • Negligence and negligence per se
  • California Consumer Privacy Act/California Privacy Rights Act violations

What this means for Home Depot shoppers in California

The proposed class covers all individuals whose vehicles the ALPR systems captured at any California Home Depot store. The plaintiffs seek statutory damages of at least $2,500 per person, punitive damages and injunctive relief that would require Home Depot to stop unauthorized data sharing, delete improperly collected data, post surveillance notices at store entrances and submit to independent audits.

There is no settlement, no claims process and no money available at this time. The lawsuit remains pending in Sacramento County Superior Court.