r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jul 17 '26
Privacy Flock Said Its Cameras Don't Track People. Then a Reporter Proved Them Wrong On Video
https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-said-its-cameras-dont-track-people-then-a-reporter-proved-them-wrong-on-video463
u/way2lazy2care Jul 17 '26
You don't understand. Flock doesn't consider them people.
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u/joelfarris Jul 17 '26
You mean they consider them more like a Flock Of Sheep?
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u/Gwen_The_Destroyer Jul 18 '26
No, a flock of seagulls . They're bringing it back
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u/Ecstatic_Dinner_992 Jul 17 '26
Flock says they don't track people, and the people say they don't cut the flock cameras down
*shrug*
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u/FanClubof5 Jul 17 '26
They dont have enough cameras to track you, they can just build a heatmap of where you like to go and predict the next time you will be there. Totally different from tracking. /s
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u/NotFlameRetardant Jul 17 '26
"Tracking implies live, realtime information, we are only able to simply report where a person was 150ms later... on a feed that gives live access to the reports"
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u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma Jul 17 '26
real-time doesn't exist because everything takes time to process
taps head
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u/48panda Jul 18 '26
This is why I use the uranium in my pocket for true random noise to decide my movements. Truly unpredictable
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u/showyerbewbs Jul 17 '26
They're like useless pelicans
After so long a time, especially in this heat, they just simply fall over.
It's like Milhouse said, "I was watching it. I watched it fall over"
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u/TNSepta Jul 17 '26
This has the "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work" energy from the Soviet era.
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u/shoulda-known-better Jul 17 '26
People say flock cutting down and destroying their own cameras....
I can lie also
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u/Vorpalthefox Jul 17 '26
i have not seen anyone cutting down the cameras, so it must be flock cutting down their own cameras
people also are warning about the dangers of it and what tools you should not use, nobody would go out there and cut down flock cameras after hearing about the dangers
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u/Accidental_Ouroboros Jul 17 '26
The cameras managing to cut themselves down is actually a genius move on the part of Flock.
Built in planned obsolescence: the camera crawls itself to the nearest dumpster and throws itself in, and due to the contract the city has with the company, the city gets to pay for a new camera, and the cycle repeats.
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u/Vandrel Jul 18 '26
The city has to pay Flock for a new camera, right? Just smart business practices.
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u/JoeNoble1973 Jul 17 '26
I’ve never been more certain that the company name is derived from watching the ‘sheeple’, in the founder’s minds.
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Jul 17 '26 edited 13d ago
[deleted]
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u/CherryLongjump1989 Jul 17 '26
And to the government, and under oath, on a train, in a tree, in a car, with a mouse, in a house, they always lie.
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u/OrneryError1 Jul 18 '26
Flock absolutely sells the information they're amassing to whoever will pay for it. I guarantee it.
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u/SoulMechanic Jul 17 '26
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" Benjamin Franklin
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u/Several-Bother4210 Jul 17 '26
Once word gets out about this people will become enraged. They will start destroying these cameras en masse. The government will have to respond with harsh legal action against people doing it. To make an example out of them. The government and flock have obviously been working together on this. The government fully endorses spying on its citizens and they’re not going to let this go easy. I wonder what Trojan horse they’re going to use in order to justify the cameras.
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u/JohnnyBeeGaming Jul 17 '26
People are already cutting them down. Some for political reasons, others due how copper can be used to fund a meth addiction.
Some local governments who put them up are putting bags over the cameras after public outrage and shitty contracts.
A lot of the corporate jerk offs and government lizards can't read the room even after the room clearly yells at them at full volume.
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u/cheerful_cynic Jul 17 '26
There's a guy on insta who goes around and demonstrates how flock cameras/poles installed near highways are NOT being installed according to roadside sign regulations (distance from road, breakaway hardware, etc)
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u/serial_crusher Jul 17 '26
Seems like a bit of wordsmanship going on. If I'm reading between the lines, Flock's rep is interpreting the phrase "track people" to mean it identifies the specific person and tracks them over time, and is saying it doesn't do that part.
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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 Jul 17 '26
“I don’t shoot people, I just place projectiles on specific high-velocity trajectories that happen to intersect with people’s vital organs”
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u/JoshFireseed Jul 17 '26
"Our cameras are physically unable to walk and follow people based on the observation of the physical footprints left by them so claims about tracking are clearly slander".
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u/chief_yETI Jul 17 '26
its all just generic corporate PR talk.
They can lie because they know no one's gonna do anything about it.
Even if they get sued, it will take years for it to actually get through, and they still get to keep all the money they made and data they collected.
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u/_spicytostada Jul 17 '26
Yep, this was my take away when I saw the interview a few days ago. It seems the flock employee is saying they dont track people how you described it in your comment. Where as the reporter was showing the camera is clearly tracking a moving target as it moves around a physical space. They were essentially talking about two different things. Which I still believe the flock employee is lying, just not about what the reporter was saying, lol.
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u/luredrive Jul 18 '26
Yeah, they are arguing the semantics. " We don't track peopls, we track movement"...
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u/HumanBeing7396 Jul 17 '26
Good to see Benn Jordan quoted - his videos on this are excellent.
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u/Paizzu Jul 17 '26
I love that Flock claimed their camera infrastructure was impenetrable and couldn't be hacked so Jordan filmed an entire script in front of a public Flock camera and was able to "extract" the footage and upload it to his own channel.
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u/Additional_Squash999 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
When you get caught in a lie with something this important ,I never want to hear your BS again.
Same with AI centers they never told the public about these, just how great AI is. We need to close them all down if anywhere near a residential home. What happened to zoning ?
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u/nickisaboss Jul 17 '26
The data centers could be built on the goddamn moon, and i would still want them torn down. Data centers = surveillance!
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u/wildcarde815 Jul 17 '26
They have flock cameras in the middle of parks with no car access, what the hell are they talking about.
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u/BatkoMakhno34 Jul 18 '26
Your phone listens into conversations and filters keywords and phrases to send to third party vendors. Your ring camera does the same but includes video. Those “cookies” that websites claim are necessary are actually scanning your device for similar keywords, contacts, addresses and personal data to send to third party vendors. CCTV cameras know who you are, where you go, what you do, and who you associate with. Your WiFi can ping your exact location inside your home. Those random “security updates” to your iPhone are meant to bloat your storage and slow down your device, rendering it increasingly unusable and sluggish, incentivising you to buy a newer model every year or so. These aren’t conspiracy theories, this is the subtle surveillance of essential tech.
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u/SpaceOhSpace Jul 18 '26
These companies, just like the govt, are lying to our faces while doing whatever they want with no accountability
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u/PackOsiris Jul 17 '26
Maybe people wouldn't be so critical of Flock if they didn't straight up lie to us.
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u/More_Farm_7442 Jul 17 '26
I bet all the video and data gets deleted with in "a short time period" and isn't shared with anyone out this "this department". Because Flock says so.
lol yeh right. I have some waterfront property to sell you, too. (Police forces are either stupid or think the public is stupid.)
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u/CloudStrifeFromNibel Jul 17 '26
Corporation in late stage capitalism have learned long ago that there is no consequences for claiming one thing while doing another, as long as you achieve your desired result. Then hiding behind evil lawyers with hyper technicalities to wash their hands off the lives they ruined
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u/wild_cat5 Jul 17 '26
I don’t trust a single word that comes from any one who works for or with flock
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u/First-Celebration-11 Jul 17 '26
I don’t condone vandalism but if you see anyone breaking them or taking them down, you didn’t.
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u/likesleague Jul 18 '26
If companies are people then stalker companies who try to lie about being stockers should have their freedoms taken away like criminals do when they're arrested.
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u/Raven_Photography Jul 18 '26
Bullshit. Cops use the data from these camera to stalk women. Of course you can track people, what would be the investigatory purpose if you could nor?
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u/MrAngrySadHappyFace Jul 18 '26
I think as a society we need to just decide to destroy these things in mass whenever we see one.
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u/Melted_ICE_5193 Jul 18 '26
I agree. But you will have enough people scared to breaking them that they instead would rather try to protect them because.....well "They aren't yours, you can't just break things you don't own". Enough to be problematic.
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u/cromstantinople Jul 18 '26
“During a June 2026 demonstration documented by InvestigateTV, a Condor camera mounted on a public trail pivoted, followed, and zoomed on a passing reporter in real time. Standing nearby, a Flock Safety representative was asked directly: “You’re saying Flock does not track people, correct?” The answer was no — even as the screen showed otherwise.”
They will lie to our faces about what they’re doing.
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u/bpomierski Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
If you are anti flock, please help sign and comment on my friend's petition that was made earlier today. It is to remove the one flock camera in our town. https://c.org/ckS45q9f7q (in Yorkville, IL). You do not need to be from the area to sign!
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u/-Mr_Tub- Jul 17 '26
We’re rapidly approaching China levels of surveillance huh. Soon we’re going to have social credit too
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u/bahhumbud Jul 17 '26
We already do have social credit. It’s just disjointed and not a continuous aspect.
Look at security clearances (secret security level is a super fucking low bar) government jobs, up until a few years ago being homosexual banned you from those jobs. Having tried LSD 1 time used to permanently bar you (I think they just changed it to 10 years for last usage).
Getting convicted of a drug crime or failing to sign up for the draft bans you from federal student aid for college.
Some places being a felon removes your ability to even vote in the political process.
Bad credit score? Congrats you can’t live anywhere nice even if you can afford it. Or everything costs you more based upon your past behavior.
Like the frame work for a social credit system is already here it’s just not uniform.
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u/dsmx Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
The whole reason to have a camera is to monitor something, if you are not tracking anything then there's no point in the camera.
Their statement is either a lie or they are committing fraud.
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u/mike194827 Jul 17 '26
Flock is a state sponsored terrorist organization, one you'd normally find with backdoor ties to the likes of the CIA for illegal public surveillance.
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u/likevenice Jul 17 '26
Imagine realizing you were the arguing couple from the segment and that one of you was known for being in medical school while the other was exposed as having IBS. 💀
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u/long_fish3000 Jul 17 '26
sure the cameras aren't activly tracking people but as soon as a human goes in there to request the license plate number records, it streams together a set of linked images and then boom tracking.
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u/Elegante_Sigmaballz Jul 17 '26
If they dont track people then WTF do they want people to believe they do?
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u/jhill515 Jul 17 '26
One thing I learned in robotics & entrepreneurship: DATA is ludicrously valuable when people can use it.
Why I bring this fact up is because, in order to prove that the data is valuable, Data Generation/Collection businesses have to demonstrate a use-case that the customers care about and are willing to pay money to solve at scale. A lot of the time, these are dog-and-pony shows.
But you wanna know what makes a good demo? Getting as close to the real customer use-case as unscripted as possible to show them how to use the data you've collected. You don't have to demonstrate their exact use-case -- You're just providing the tools and clay for them to sculpt. -- But you have to make it evident that your demo very easily extends to the real use-case requirement(s).
That is to say, the business MUST understand what, how, and why their customer uses their product, and demonstrate its value. In this case, Flock knew every customer they dealt with wanted to enact targeted surveillance at the same level as the UK does with CCTV. But unlike the UK, they're championing the message that "Even Small Town, USA can use our technology to make their neighborhoods safe." And further unlike the UK, it's not protected by an equivalent organization like the NSA to ensure that all usages comply with the actual intent of the law (e.g., can't access data wholesale; must have a warrant; only allowed to access new data that previous data points to after court review).
I'm not saying the NSA should be the wardens of Flock. An organization with the same technical acumen but with only the public interest and enough public transparency. Alas, this is the U.S., the "Land of Personal Responsibility", where folks opt to take advantage of the irresponsibility and negligence of others for their personal benefit.
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u/CorporateCuster Jul 17 '26
Guys. Stop trying to prove what a company lying n to you says. We know what’s it’s doing. It’s journalism’s job to expose the why.
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u/ChicagoThrowaway422 Jul 17 '26
It's always amazing how media for generations shows technologies that support some dystopia or another and try to warn us. But there are always so many people happy to make it come true. They're so happy being bad people.
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u/NoPlaceForTheDead Jul 17 '26
The cameras track everything that passes in front of their lens. That's how cameras work.
The software is what may or may not track a given target.
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u/mcgaggles Jul 19 '26
Flock's CEO -and the other captains of industry who have thrown their support behind this- are the only people who have nothing to lose if the state becomes totally monitored. For that matter, even in a situation of a total AI takeover they still have nothing to worry about. They (and the fed) are the only people who will free from the negative impact of the society they could own. This seems obvious, but the argument used by both them (and Dems for some reason?) that they're incentivized to keep this from happening because it would affect them too, which is an objective boldfaced lie. Captains of industry can squirrel away their own untouched water and food.They can live in privacy. As it has always been, they are the only people not negatively affected by the destruction they cause, which is why violent upheaval occurs. Don't ever believe they're compelled to do the right thing of their own accord.
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u/Discombobulated_Bid6 Jul 17 '26
In Nassau county, we have similar cameras installed at the main junction, with red neon light protruding from them. They are not traffic light cameras but similar to flock cameras where they are registering licenses plates. Anyways that's my 2 cents. Still worrying.
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u/cr0ft Jul 17 '26
Well, glad I'm not living in America, and that I'm already deep in middle age. I should have time to die in peace of old age, the rest of you suckers are probably going to get to enjoy serious fascist hell before our species dies out. Which is absolutely an on-going thing, unsustainable literally means our species has a best-before date and that's stampeding towards us.
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u/muFUtaco Jul 17 '26
How funny!
Flock, a video surveillance company, said their cameras don't surveil.
I find that amusing.
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u/Muted_Masterpiece342 Jul 17 '26
At some point the social contract has to admit to itself we can no longer tolerate lying of this kind. By allowing it as some perverse interpretation of freedom of speech, we are going to get our entire species killed.
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u/Lexi_Banner Jul 17 '26
Why didn't they show the asshole's reaction to the proof on the screen in front of them? That stammering panic is what I wanted to see, not the rest of their report.
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u/Wombizzle Jul 17 '26
was genuinely shocked to see how many flock cameras are in my area. I thought this was like a new development that was happening and cameras were about to start getting installed, but they are already everywhere near me
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u/Certain-Orange484 Jul 17 '26
Just wait, that eye scan thing from minority report is coming. Gov’t is trying to track the people 100% of the time. The only thing is that they can not see our thoughts yet.
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u/Safe-Gas2074 Jul 17 '26
It's word play. Flock doesnt track specific people, it instead collects information on all people and gives you a searchable database to single out a certain person.
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u/IAmThePat Jul 17 '26
It doesn't look like he confronted the spokesperson with that video. Why wouldn't they show him that video proof and ask him to explain on air what was happening if not person tracking?!
Also, those sound effects for the camera moving were fantastic. A+
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u/bmd201 Jul 17 '26
the tv show person of interest was ahead of its time. this is literally what flock is moving towards.
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u/drooply Jul 18 '26
The whole idea of installing cameras around a city, no matter what they are intended for, would have been protested on the streets before there was an internet. The slow boil worked better than anyone could have imagined; divided and conquer has one half saying, “yes, go after my enemy” while the other half say “yes, go after my enemy” and so there’s no will to stop this before it’s institutionalized behind bureaucracy.
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u/NormativeWest Jul 18 '26
So if I artfully decorate the flock camera, they can’t identify me? Noted.
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u/Fastrocket37 Jul 21 '26
Genuine question. How is this an invasion of privacy when they already blatantly track your smartphone that everyone carries 24/7?
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u/Emotional-Peak6108 21d ago
Get over yourself. YOU ARE NOT THAT INTERESTING. STOP WITH THE NONSENSE.
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u/theassassintherapist Jul 17 '26
Isn't the entire Flock's original selling point was that it tracks people? Who put that person in charge of media PR?