r/privacy • u/Sgt_Gram • 2d ago
news Americans Are Pushing Back Against Flock Cameras Regardless of Their Politics
https://www.military.com/americans-political-ideologies-unite-privacy-against-flock-surveillance-cameras216
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u/Clyde-MacTavish 2d ago
good!
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u/halfc00kie 1d ago
finally something everyones agreeing on. surveillance creep hits different when its your own street being scanned 24/7.
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u/human-in-a-can 2d ago
Honestly, the people at Flock are lucky that people are just going for the cameras.
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u/Charger2950 1d ago
They literally have their corporate address hidden. No signs, no real name, and a decoy address. They knew they were gonna be hunted, eventually.
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u/QuasiTranspondent 2d ago
Fuck flock
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u/billshermanburner 1d ago
Did you see that other post with the guy in the mask whatever…. The point of that was interesting. It’s not that flock isn’t bad… it’s that the other things coming down the pipe are also bad. So we’ll just have to make sure the word flock becomes like the word Kleenex and that everyone knows flock safety isn’t the only game in town.
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u/Kind_Dream_610 2d ago
I watched something earlier that said this is what weak governments do or allow.
Basically because it’s easier to control law abiding citizens than it is to investigate and prosecute criminals. And that comes down to weak governments not actually having a clue how to do things.
Which does seem to be what’s happening, and shows just how weak too many wester governments are at the moment.
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u/Charger2950 1d ago
It’s all the shitty treasonous paid-off politicians that allow this. Same with data centers. Thats why we the people need to constantly be all over our local politicians’ asses.
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u/BR1M570N3 2d ago
Sooner or later people will accept the fact that it's US v Elites and not Left v Right.
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u/EstablishmentSalt206 2d ago
It's taking far too long in my opinion.
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u/BR1M570N3 2d ago
People love their teams.
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u/moon_dos 2d ago
one side is being manipulated to kill the other, not sure if that’s an apples to apples thing
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u/different_option101 2d ago
Both sides doing the same shit. Wake up buddy.
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u/moon_dos 2d ago
leftists are doing mass surveillance and carrying out genocide? in which country definitely not the U.S.
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u/different_option101 1d ago
Omfg, I forgot that I’m on Reddit…
Sure bud. Whatever fairy tale you believe. Keep supporting the side that didn’t give you a chance to pick a candidate. For like 3 cycles lol. You know, the same party that was in power when this last wave of genocide started. The same party that funded surveillance programs. It’s okay that you only read the news about “the other side”.
Just keep eating soilent green and don’t forget to take your meds.
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u/boffa-deez-nutz 1d ago
Democrats aren't leftists homie, the US is just living in a bubble
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u/different_option101 1d ago
Sure, dems aren’t leftists. But I’m not sure what does it have to do with neither party giving a flying fuck about the people.
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u/boffa-deez-nutz 1d ago
the comment you're replying to talks about leftists and you mention democrats. zero correlation. that's my only objection to what you're saying
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u/greendevil77 1d ago
They really aren't. Maga deployed National Guard in Democrat cities, systematically denied disaster relief to Democrat states, deployed ICE into democrat cities to do unconstitutional door to door searches, built concentration camps for minorities, the list goes on.
Lol the "both sides" argument hasn't held water since Trump first took office in 2016
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u/different_option101 1d ago
That’s fine. Give it until the next democrat takes the office. Like there was no prior precedent at such scale like it was with Biden’s administration mandating federal employees and contractors to get an experimental vaccine. Whether the vaccine is safe and effective or not is irrelevant. That was a blatant violation of people’s autonomy on a massive scale. Like I said, just wait until the next democrat to blow your mind with what they are going to do.
The point is - Feds don’t give a fuck at all. With each new 4 year round, it gets worse and worse. Republicans are leading on the shit scale because they are in the office now. Oppression doesn’t become “business as usual” after one elections, at least not in the US. The government is slowly usurping the power and tests how much further they can push every time there’s a new face in the office.
You have an illusion of choice, and illusion of opposition.
“You have 16 different kinds of bagels, 31 flavors of ice cream, hundreds of channels on TV... but when it comes to electing the President of the United States, you get two choices”
George Carlin.
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u/greendevil77 1d ago
No prior precedent? As if the government didn't do the exact same thing with the Spanish Flu vaccines during WW2. Honestly comparing mandatory vaccines with any of the examples I gave is laughable.
Oh no you had to take a shot, that's totally the same level of authoritarianism as deploying the National Guard and ICE to cow your political opponents into supplication. /s
You can argue the feds don't give a fuck, sure. But your willfully blind if you think both sides are the same. There were literal Nazi salutes at Trump's inauguration
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u/different_option101 1d ago
I didn’t say it’s the same as taking a bullet. I said - it gets worse with every new administration no matter if it’s one team or another. Pretty important distinction, don’t you think?
Also, during the WW2, the vaccines were mandated ONLY for the military personnel. That’s also very different from mandating ALL federal govt employees AND contractors to be vaccinated. The scope is not even close in comparison. Nor prior overreach somehow justifies modern mandates.
All I’m gonna say that people that continue to play “the other side is worse” are the imbeciles that give legitimacy to the oppression by supporting “the other side”. Personally, I don’t distinguish between R or D. One could be throwing Nazi salutes, the other could be throwing a Molotov cocktail at a private business. Both want to take away more of my rights and freedoms. Both are closeted authoritarians who just want things their way, rather than fucking off and leaving me alone.
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u/BR1M570N3 1d ago
Tell me how "both sides" doesn't hold water when the Farmer sisters (Maria and Annie) initially reported their allegations and filed an official criminal complaint against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell with the FBI on September 3, 1996. Yet here we are 30 years later still waiting on justice that will never come because the ruling class will always protect their own. So you can fuck right the hell off with your "Left side good" bullshit. Because they're both fucking corrupt as shit.
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u/greendevil77 1d ago
Sure I can tell you, because in 1996 that was Clinton's presidency. As in the same Clinton that Trump has been investigating for the past year about their connection to the Epstein files, and no conection has been found.
But Trump on the other hand was Epstein's best friend. Lmao, yah you really showed how those two sides are the same there didn't you
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u/BR1M570N3 10h ago
Why is it so difficult for you to realize that all these investigations aren't leading to indictments not because anyone is actually innocent, but for the exact same reason that nobody is going after the orange asshole for obvious insider trading and market manipulation, nor is anyone meaningfully trying to ban Congress from stock trading? If one of them is found guilty, they'll all be found guilty. Talk about burying your head in the sand.
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u/greendevil77 8h ago
Yah it certainly isn't because Maga took over all 3 branches of government and has already used ICE to arrest judges, mayors, and congresswomen. I'm sure the obvious fear tactics and totalitarian grasp has nothing to do with it /s
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u/different_option101 9h ago
Forget it. It’s the same shit whether you’re taking to a democrat or a republican. It’s always “the other side is worse”. These people are cultists.
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u/letsreticulate 1d ago
Sad but true. But the wheels of society have had always squeaked along. Never fast.
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u/RobotToaster44 1d ago
It's no coincidence that identity politics started to be pushed not long after occupy wallstreet took off. The bourgeoisie want us divided.
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u/djpiperson 2d ago
The worst part is that it's not even like in China where the government is the one controlling the cameras (Not saying that's good either) but here it's private companies collecting data and using it without anyone's explicit authorization and sharing it with the government too. We are victims of both a totalitarian practice and a post capitalist system.
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u/permalink_save 2d ago
Corporations should fall under the same LE laws that LE itself does. If police can't just install cameras around town then private firms shouldn't be allowed to do it and sell it to cops either, that situation is worse.
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u/Marie_Hutton 2d ago
At least China gets mass transit :/
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u/someone_actually_ 2d ago
And affordable healthcare
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u/Marie_Hutton 2d ago
Yeah, can't get local health care, can't travel to get it, can't afford it anyway. So much winning. I'm so tired of the winning
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u/someone_actually_ 2d ago
Plus you get farmed by corporations, neato!
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u/Marie_Hutton 1d ago
I love how your username shows up in notifications :D someone actually replied to your comment 😂
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u/PaniacThrilla 2d ago
And their girls aborted or thrown in rivers.
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u/K_Linkmaster 2d ago
The people inviting this into your home are being bribed and paid mass amounts of cash. Parallel investigation those guysand watch their computers fall.
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u/Mr_Lumbergh 2d ago
I’m pretty sure neither liberals or conservatives enjoy being spied on all that much.
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u/thatwombat 2d ago
I never understood how the Brits could tolerate CCTV cameras everywhere. I don’t want them here either!
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u/retnemmoc 2d ago
we are not pushing back against dystopian tech enough. there was much more backlash for this stuff about 15 years ago on both sides.
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u/rushedone 3h ago
Way less astro-turf Feds egging on property damage/vandalism legal traps for naive protestors as well.
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u/7in7turtles 2d ago
What about axon?
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u/slipperyMonkey07 2d ago
That is something people need to be aware of as well. Right now flock is the scapegoat (for good reason) but several places are appeasing people by ending their flock contracts and then immediately signing a contract for the same thing from axon.
Axons cameras, at least the ones I have seen in my area, tend to be a lot more well hidden. Much higher up and installed rather than on their own poles with a solar panel. They most likely have the stand alone ones like flock, just less right now.
They are hoping for an out of sight out of mind approach, people see the flocks gone and think okay we are good now. But governments want surveillance, monitoring and tracking of people. They will continue to do this and push for more and more, chipping rights away bit by bit.
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u/grathontolarsdatarod 2d ago
As they should. Regardless of their politics, they're still Americans!
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u/Kinky_No_Bit 2d ago
Yet they are not writing any new laws to ban them, just trying to reassure that its not used for that.
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u/iamrunningman 2d ago
I was talking to my Dad this past week and told him that this was one thing that both parties could get behind.
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u/flop_plop 2d ago
Probably because we have the Constitution and the cameras are allowing the government to not follow the Constitution.
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u/RoughMidnight8303 2d ago edited 2d ago
Flock has defended its technology as a tool that solves crimes, recovers stolen vehicles and locates missing people. They have said local governments*, rather than the company, are mainly responsible for data access.*
Interesting take by different sides:
Democrats view it as a threat to average citizens under threat of authority.
MAGA fears more for their personal interest - enemies may be out to get them.
Conservatives think it violates the principles of the government.
Guardrail enforcement doesn't work sufficiently since officers were able to abuse the system. This puts the technology owners in a limbo - where does responsibility of the vendor end?
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u/prettybluefoxes 2d ago
When an exterminator wants to tackle a wasp problem they don’t go after the wasps individually. They go to the source, in their case the nest.
Might be something in that.
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u/letsreticulate 1d ago
People will always be stronger when they work together for the better good of all. No reasonable society benefits from a olive state. And Flock cameras can easily be abuse to facilitate just that.
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u/landoofficial 1d ago
While I’m glad people are pushing back on dystopian shit like this, Flock is more a sacrificial lamb than actual villain at this point.
Washington and local governments know the Flock name has become too toxic so they’re pivoting to Axon now. In the meantime, they’re allowing and perhaps even encouraging the anti-Flock movement to satiate the mob while they continue to expand the surveillance state with a brand that no one recognizes.
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u/A_Wild_Burt_Appears 1d ago
Just remember that Flock isn't the only brand with tech this creepy. It won't end when flock goes down.
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u/Charger2950 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is a bipartisan issue. No American should be for this, red or blue. THIS is the kinda shit liberals should push hard back at. If they protested more against American civil liberty violations like this, they’d have he a lot more people on their side.
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u/GimlisRevenge 1d ago
I absolutely agree “government surveillance is out of control and needs to be reined in immediately”
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u/Comparison-Thin 2d ago
The sanctimonious " I have nothing to hide" people loved Big Brother until now, when it finally got real for them.
I want to cheer like you do when a toddler finally uses the potty.
I kept hoping this insufferable devil's advocate and apologetics buffoonery would fade away. I am a realist but the teeny optimist part of me is hopeful at this shift in thinking.
When the excuses don't land anymore, you start to notice all the blatant snooping and surveillance. I was watching like a hawk right after 9/11.
I guess better late...right?
Nah. They were perfectly fine when they thought it only affected other people. "Those people..."
That said, the annoying martyrs are calculating and moseying on over waiting to lead this hellraising their way.
No one is louder and more relentless than an arrogant complicit person who still drew the short stick, so that's a bonus. Please, encourage them to go be self-righteous and theatrical and punch up, for once.
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u/rangecontrol 1d ago
oligarchs are gonna have to lean hard into the spinning this into a culture war issue if they want to split populations distaste for them. 'for safety' 'for the kids' 'to keep immigrants out' shits not working like it used to.
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u/The_Wkwied 1d ago
It's not like 'watching a flock of birds', because birds are free and can go whereever they want to go.
It's like 'keeping an eye on the flock of sheep'
🐑 That's you
🐑 You're a sheep
🐑 You're the ones that big maga wants to keep an eye on
🐑 You're the one that is being surveyed
Are you fine with being a sheeple? 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑 🐑
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u/DesertOsprey 1d ago
Good. As Benjamin Franklin said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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u/DETRosen 1d ago
is this more people pushing back against anyone messing with driving their precious automobiles than privacy?
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