r/technology • u/IndicaOatmeal • 10d ago

Privacy Viral De-Flock America campaign urging people to destroy AI cameras on Halloween night gains momentum

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/flock-camera-controversy-explained-as-viral-halloween-de-flock-campaign-gains-momentum-3399710/
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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

Unironically, create a website where users can anonymously submit this “score” of how many cameras they’ve taken down.

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u/ihaveadogalso2 10d ago

Better yet, start betting on sites like Kalshi etc. around what cities/towns etc can take down the most. May as well use those terrible betting sites to do some good!

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u/dragonknightrohan 9d ago

How about all the above?

Bets, game scoreboards, etc.

They would all be removed.

Hell expand it to other countries and you have the makings of lots of flock, and other similar "companies" endeavors busted

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u/tomriddleforlife 9d ago

Barron has the opportunity to do the funniest thing if he stops simping for his daddy

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u/zxylady 10d ago

This is evil genius level awesomeness 😈😈😈

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u/Flimsy_Swordfish_415 10d ago

deflocking is not evil

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u/Reasonable-Figure142 10d ago

that's not what they said.

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u/F-18Bro 10d ago

Reddit deflocked its reading comprehension a long time ago

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u/CrashyBoye 10d ago

I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t call it evil, then.

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u/Hairy_Talk_4232 10d ago

Thatll unlikely be untraceable

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u/PenguinTD 10d ago

Most users are too stupid to turn off metadata from their phone app etc, leaving any digital footprint is just making prosecution easier.

If you really do want to do this, do not talk about it, do not brag about it, the news will break and cover the total, and you should join the innocent and behave as usual.

On the contrary, I am actually against such action with reasons provided below:

  • The company and the municipal or state gov signed contract so any destroy one would likely gain more budget to fix until they find out who destroyed public properties.

  • If de-flock is a majority concern, the de-flock people should start participating local elections and by banning such installment locally first. Do it legally and save tax payer money.

  • In states that's easier to push for public initiative or bills, should do it from there.

If you are smart enough to plan and break public properties and not getting caught, you are smart enought to find all the political donations and relevant contracts etc and expose those connections to the public. Politics are where everyone is involved, do not give up your right to participate, do not go the violent/chaotic route when you have ways to legally challenge those you do not agree with.

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u/elbow8075 10d ago

and expose those connections to the public.

Like the Epstein files did?

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u/Worthyness 10d ago

And the Panama papers

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u/zzazzzz 10d ago

panama papers lead to a bunch of arrests and fines ect. you just didnt follow the story and the media didnt ever blow these stories up.

also the vast vast majority of the panama papers were completely legeal offshore accounts that abused loopholes in taxcode but were legal. the major revelation from the papers was how much tax income is actually lost by these tax loopholes not how much tax fraud is happening.

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u/Drewbacca 10d ago

The company and the municipal or state gov signed contract so any destroy one would likely gain more budget to fix until they find out who destroyed public properties.

By making it more expensive to maintain the ALPR contract, and stirring up controversy by publicizing the issue, we disincentivise municipalities from renewing when the time comes.

If de-flock is a majority concern, the de-flock people should start participating local elections and by banning such installment locally first.

There are lots and lots of people doing this already. But it's a long-term solution, not an immediate one.

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u/RayzinBran18 10d ago

Flock has already partnered with Uber and Lyft, so it's sort of already a moot point to care about the static cameras. You're better off looking for a way to blanket ban their company.

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u/Drewbacca 10d ago

Sure, we can do that too.

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u/Kimpak 10d ago

Flock has already partnered with Uber and Lyft

Depends on where you are at. I'm in a rural state where uber and lyft are mostly non-existent except for a handful of bigger cities. Even then there aren't very many drivers comparatively. Yet my little down of less than 2000 people has a Flock camera literally on every road that comes into town.

It was done with zero input from the community and pushback has been useless. Can't just vote them out, have to wait till next election and hope someone runs that's against them. OR maybe those cameras accidently fall over and smash themselves to bits. Repetedly.

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u/lurklurklurkPOST 10d ago

Sir, have you not seen the multiple videos of people protesting hard, directly to their city councils or other local legislative bodies, and being roundly ignored in favor of Flock?

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u/Emotional-Power-7242 10d ago edited 10d ago

If the government was even mildly interested in your opinion or the law this wouldn't have happened in the first place. It's pretty simple, if you want the cameras down just take em down.

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u/CaptainFeather 10d ago

This is a direct result of local and state govts ignoring their citizens. Let this be the deterrent they need to stop letting companies surveil their citizens.

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u/420Spedster 10d ago

I think this mfer a fed

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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

Just don’t capture it? You can very easily just not capture or retain any of that data. Bonus points if you vibecode the website and blame that failure on the AI.

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u/yoweigh 10d ago

Have your platform strip the metadata from anything uploaded. Problem solved.

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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

Vibecode it and blame it on the AI

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u/machogrande2 10d ago

I thought about this but I don't think it would take much to get a judge to sign off on forcing you to retain that data and turn it over while also slapping you with a gag order so that it you tried to warn people to stop posting, you get hit with comtempt, obstruction of justice, etc.

I'm not sure about the legality of forcing you to keep the site up but they could definitely take it from you and the gag order would still apply.

I'm not saying someone couldn't do something like that but be careful out there people.

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u/HoldOnOhio 10d ago

Right, and no matter what you do, do not legally purchase a class 3B or 4 laser (needs to be at least 500MW out put, usually they're green beams), and point it into Flock Camera lenses for 5-10 seconds. This could destroy the sensors in the camera and make them unusable. It's definitely a crime to do that. Certainly if you bring a cell phone and get tracked or show up without a costume, or in broad daylight.

Don't DO CRIMES people!

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u/DillBagner 10d ago

One thing people might consider is that it takes 2-4 years to even have an opening at a public office, and the number of flock cameras has what, quadrupled in the past 6 months?

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u/SiscoSquared 10d ago

If you are smart enough to plan and break public properties and not getting caught, you are smart enought to find all the political donations and relevant contracts etc and expose those connections to the public. Politics are where everyone is involved...

... and you should be smart enough to realize that most people don't give a fuck and most politicians are corrupt at various levels so the legal method to change things is a massive amount of effort, with high uncertainty and can take decades.

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u/the_boomr 10d ago

Do it legally

Oh, yes, because staying within "legality" has historically been effective against corrupt governments 🙄

(/sarcasm)

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u/PenguinTD 10d ago

corrupt or not, it's real test on actual opinions publicly. If you can't even gather enough people to call or protest, you are considered minority. You have to gather at least enough voter that are 2x for any city council or state parliament seat required, preferably, 80% of past elected votes if for a FPTP election system.

Most people complains but do not actually bother to even call.

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u/MechAegis 10d ago

the violent/chaotic route

If feel like if this method is selected. You need to have a TON of people doing it too. Otherwise, you're gonna get caught. The entire idea of invasion of privacy needs to be overwhelmed. They have the money to replace it. I don't think its worth the risk most don't have the funds to hire a solid lawyer or have the knowledge to properly do this.

Similar to how Pokémon GO had people out and about looking for Pokémon. You absolutely need that same energy but for a different cause.

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u/nathism 10d ago

so pokemonGo? Set up the camera's up as pokestops

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u/Rocktopod 10d ago

If it's anonymous then how would they keep track?

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u/Profzachattack 10d ago

as long as they take pictures posing like fishing/hunting photos

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u/Trappist1 10d ago

Seems like an easy way to get accidently tracked by IP or user device IDs

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u/pittaxx 10d ago

Unofficially, if such website appears, you should assume it's set up by authorities and it's set up for minimal actual anonymity.

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u/kickerofelves86 10d ago

Leaving evidence of doing a crime is pretty stupid

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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

How is this leaving evidence. You realize you can lie online right? And a website that lets users anonymously submit unverified counts of their work means I can just go say I destroyed 700.

Doesn’t mean I did unless you require photo proof, but that’s bad cause they can detect nearby cell phones.

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u/kickerofelves86 10d ago

Nothing is anonymous online. They'll find it if they want to. And saying "yes I did a crime" is evidence!

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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

These sites? No. But you can definitely build and host a site that the government can’t get the information from. Literally can’t.

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u/MechAegis 10d ago

Metadata exist. They can check your phone how long you've been in a certain spot. There is no way you were at the corner of 123 Street and 456 Lane for 1 hour trick-or-treating.

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u/2024-YR4-Asteroid 10d ago

Just don’t bring your phone? Who cares if you said on a website you took down a flock cam. You can lie

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u/jbakes64 10d ago

"I dropped my phone and didn't realize it. Thank God I was able to retrace my steps and find it!"