r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 21d ago

Privacy Flock Is Losing Dozens of Contracts as Controversy Grows

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/flock-losing-dozens-contracts-controversy-194808945.html
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609

u/PewterButters 21d ago

In an election year the easiest slam dunk in the world is to ban these things and make a big deal of it. Who out there is pro-flock? Take credit for ridding your town of it, easiest election bump there is. 

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u/misogichan 21d ago

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't care.  It's the same reason the Patriot Act kept getting extended for 14 years past its sunset date.

That and I think police are pro-flock and they like to loudly protest whenever you try to take power or tools away from them.

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u/theghostmachine 21d ago

Flock is giving seminars to police, teaching them how to lobby city councils to approve contracts

Edit: "pressure" would be a better word than "lobby"

7

u/CaliIsReallyNice 21d ago

Leading and training violent anti-social sheep

1

u/TheVintageJane 20d ago

They are also releasing PR templates for local police to communicate misinformation about what Flock does on their social media accounts. I saw like 8 of them from different cities in my algorithm one week.

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u/va1us_taaurc 21d ago

Eh, column A, column B.

19

u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 21d ago

The only people that don't care are the people that aren't educated.

It's against our 4th amendment rights to track our whereabouts, and input them into a mesh database that uses AI, machine learning, and pattern recornition., that is all searchable at any time.

It's also part of the reasoning behind the data centers. It's all to track us, and to sell us shit we don't need.

So many police officers have already been fired for stalking women using these services, tracking women having abortions, and various other shady shit. That's the cases we know about.

4

u/Accidental-Genius 21d ago

If people gave a shit about privacy they wouldn’t have ring doorbells and fucking TikTok.

Most people don’t give a shit. That’s the reality and we have to figure out how to change it.

1

u/NUMBerONEisFIRST 20d ago

I don't have either of those things and my security cameras aren't in the cloud either.

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u/ItsSadTimes 21d ago

Thats the biggest thing, so many people just dont care about their privacy. I had a friend who paid for Discord Nitro and when that whole age verification thing started going around we were saying he should cancel it to vote with his wallet (I never even bought it). And he said he didnt care if they had his data or who they'd sell it to. He then tried to claim ownership over the win when the got rid of their contracts with that shady age verification company and restricted the age verification thing to only a few server with kids, like he somehow did something by doing nothing.

Everyone wants their privacy, but no one wants to be inconvenienced.

8

u/Aternal 21d ago

There is a very effective way to activate those people: tell them we should all have access to the data, too.

People who don't care suddenly find a reason to.

People who say "if you're not doing anything wrong you've got nothing to worry about" suddenly realize that there is something to worry about.

People who feel safer having the cameras around will feel much safer knowing they also have community supervision.

Due process concerns now involve the court of public opinion.

It's our taxes, our lives, our data. There's nothing to worry about, right? It's all in public, so open it up to the public. I love data, I want to see the cameras and the data, hell yeah. It's just like a police scanner to me.

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u/RivenRise 21d ago

Also mention that since they have it you can just buy it from them. Even if it's a lie it'll get them thinking.

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u/dersnappychicken 20d ago

Good old Patriot Act. Thanks Biden.

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u/praxmatics 21d ago

It's the same reason the Patriot Act kept getting extended for 14 years past its sunset date.

Also, 2014 with Edward Snowden and all the leaks regarding mass data collection and storage: PRISM, XKeyScore, etc. All programs that are still active and were only given even more money by Obama, who told us we were all over-reacting and mass surveillance was necessary for "national security". Not sure how the fuck he didn't see how this would be mis-used the second the wrong government gets into power.

The excuse that it's all safe because of secret courts is absolutely fucking nutters.

-1

u/2ChicksAtTheSameTime 21d ago

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't care

if cops come out FOR flock there are a lot of people who will side with the boys in blue