Is Flock really 3rd party? Yes, they're a private entity, but they largely owe their existence to government contracts. They maintain their database on behalf of various governments. Their primary sales pitch is to law enforcement. It feels like something completely different than Alphabet's or Meta's databases of person/user data.

I do agree that Flock is also not the same as the database of cell phone location data that Verizon or Apple or whoever else might maintain.

It's somewhere in the middle, IMO. At least to my non-lawyer brain.

Being a government contractor doesn't make you a part of the government. A lot of companies have government contracts, many more so than Flock.

Specifically as intended.

For states where law enforcement cannot do such things directly, they can still contract with a private provider, either as an RFP, or (as in some states) "you can't RFP this butttt if some private provider just so happened to provide it, you can use it".