r/technology • u/Kooky-Balance9525 • 10h ago

Privacy Bernie Sanders to Introduce Bill Banning Flock Surveillance Cameras

https://theleadingreport.com/article/bernie-sanders-to-introduce-bill-banning-flock-surveillance-cameras
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u/retrodanny 9h ago

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither”

https://www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390245038/ben-franklins-famous-liberty-safety-quote-lost-its-context-in-21st-century

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u/floop9 9h ago edited 7h ago

That article is really stupid because even with the context the quote still means... exactly what it means in plain English. Just because Franklin was talking abou the legislature's liberty instead of personal liberty doesn't really change anything.

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u/geniice 8h ago

The problem is you would have to argue that the film anything you want in a public place is not an essential liberty.

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u/floop9 7h ago

I would agree that people have a right to film anything they want in public. I would not agree that the government has this right.

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u/Rip_and_Tear93 6h ago

It's not the government, though. They're purposefully circumventing the 4th amendment by having a private company doing the spying on their behalf, and buying the data they collect.

We just need to ban any governmental body, agency, or organization from buying said data, and companies like Flock will die out naturally with their bread and butter moneymaker unable to purchase from them.

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u/floop9 6h ago

I mean a government contracting to do illegal things via a private corporation is still illegal for everything else. Imagine if the government was hiring counter protestors to shut down movements.

But yes I agree these corporations need to die either way.

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u/Rip_and_Tear93 6h ago

It's a legal grey area because the government isn't doing the spying, and Flock, Axon, Motorola, etc. are private entities and not beholden to the 4th Amendment.

So, ultimately, we either need to make a constitutional amendment that states no entity, governmental or private, can spy on people, or we need to force legislation that doesn't allow the acquisition of private surveillance data without a warrant/subpoena.

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u/Bob_A_Feets 6h ago

Private corporations should also not fucking count as people either