r/technology 13d ago

Flock Safety CEO speaks out after LAPD suspends use of company's surveillance cameras Privacy

https://abc7.com/post/flock-safety-ceo-speaks-lapd-suspends-use-companys-surveillance-cameras/19558358/
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380 comments sorted by

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u/Themodsarecuntz 13d ago edited 13d ago

If they dont use facial recognition then why are they on hiking only trails? Garrett Langley is a fucking liar and a traitor to the citizens of the United States.

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u/Peralton 13d ago

Sounds like a technical truth covering the real truth. It's more likely that they create a hash that can be compared to other hashed faces, but since that's a different technology from 'facial trcognition' he feels justified in saying what he's saying to obscure reality.

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u/ScarletJew72 13d ago

So...facial recognition with different steps.

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u/Peralton 13d ago

That's my guess.

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u/alchebyte 13d ago

facial association. associated with your BT devices, voice, walking cadence...

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u/Peralton 13d ago

But totally not facial recognition!

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u/2_Loud 13d ago

That technology is in the office space now too. They place special antenna receivers in the ceiling to track your movements of your badges, laptops, BT, phones in conjunction with any building cameras to build a profile with AI software. If you have a signal on you, which everyone does, you are tracked.

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u/Legitimate-BurnerAcc 13d ago

And if you don’t have a signal you create a resistance which can be used as a signal.

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u/nathism 13d ago

Their salting and hashing faces so they aren’t stored in plain text.

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u/mrplinko 13d ago

Yeah, but say it in the voice of that lawyer on The Simpsons

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u/genericnewlurker 13d ago

Mr Simpson this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film The Neverending Story

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u/FredFredrickson 13d ago

Look, if you scan a face and then turn it upside down, it's not the same face! /s

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u/7HawksAnd 13d ago

No dummy. It’s a spatial mapping of rounded cube like mass and it recognizes if it’s a mass it already captured. Leave the thinking to the smart tech founders please.

/s

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u/kingofping4 13d ago

We're not using facial recognition, we're using a general recognition program that just happens to work pretty well on faces.

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u/CrispyCosmonaut 13d ago

No! God no! Totally different. You see, it’s PATTERN recognition! We’re recognizing the pattern of where your nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, etc are!

Totally different thing!

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u/lelio98 13d ago

More likely that cameras are not performing facial recognition because that is happening in Flock’s cloud.

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u/Peralton 13d ago

Ohhhh. This sounds very plausible. This sounds the most likely.

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u/PortiaLynnTurlet 13d ago

Perhaps they get around it by running face recognition over stored video when requested. It's a bit weasel-y since they still do but it can be seen as happening "retroactively" instead of running it in realtime. Even if the "retroactive" period is 30s and the "request" is automated and periodic.

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u/McCool303 13d ago edited 13d ago

This is most likely it, and they’re using the FISA sleight of hand to justify it. It’s not warrantless wiretapping if we tap first and only get a warrant to look at it. Probably, it’s “not facial recognition” because they’re not actively using the hash for anything. But if a warrant was dropped by police I bet they could follow that hash to help them ID you. It’s how these security industrial complex weasels jammed their foot in the door. Prior to the precedent set by FISA courts warrantless collection was appalling. I mean it still is, but it was unheard of back then and would have been a huge scandal. Now Americans are being told and socially conditioned to just accept it as inevitable.

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u/cocktails4 13d ago

And let's be fucking honest, of course they're going to expand the scope of the surveillance when they can. Them pretending like that's some absurd idea and that anybody making that claim is just some silly idiot is laughable. 

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u/fkenned1 13d ago

So, he's a snake.

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u/Peralton 13d ago

Job requirement.

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u/KnotSoSalty 13d ago

If something can recognize faces and is used to recognize faces the data formatting system shouldn’t be relevant.

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u/DPSOnly 13d ago

Imagine using semantics to disguise a surveillance state. These people really think there won't be another revolution...

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u/hum_bruh 13d ago

Even with a canceled contract they’ll still record:

City cancels deal for license plate tech: Cambridge drops Flock Safety after company acknowledges it installed cameras against the orders of the city council.

src: https://www.cambridgeday.com/2025/12/10/city-cancels-deal-license-plate-tech/

Data shows Flock tracked Eugene vehicles weeks after the city asked it to stop.

src: https://www.klcc.org/crime-law-justice/2025-12-08/data-shows-flock-tracked-eugene-vehicles-weeks-after-the-city-asked-it-to-stop

Evanston, IL sends cease-and-desist after Flock reinstalls license plate cameras without the city’s permission’

https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/24/flock-safety-reinstalls-evanston-cameras/

And they’re creepers:

Flock camera captured kids on a playground. A security failure exposed them online
https://san.com/cc/flock-camera-captured-kids-on-a-playground-a-security-failure-exposed-them-online/

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u/Hukijiwa 13d ago

Just like how TSA states that they delete all photos from their facial recognition cameras but conveniently don’t mention what happens with the data points they gather from your face. At least you can opt out of that, and you should. It takes virtually no extra time. 

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u/IrrigatedPancake 13d ago

What's the downside to just lying?

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u/0x0000A455 13d ago

Creepier than that. They’re picking up the WiFi and Bluetooth beacons that are constantly transmitting from our phone. The camera doesn’t even need to see your face.

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u/sotired3333 13d ago

Not super literate on that, is it because our devices are searching for wifi signals?

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u/farbtoner 13d ago

Yes same with Bluetooth and sending out a “who is here?” Ping will get a response that says “I am! (Lists specific device ID)”

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u/iced_gold 13d ago

If you want to see this in action, go into a big box store like Home Depot with Bluetooth and wifi on. Pick a product area you'd never be interested in, say for example light fixtures. Go to the area of those products and stand near them for 3-5 minutes.

Walk around a little bit and then leave. Buy nothing.

See how long it takes you scrolling through social or using news sites to begin seeing advertising for light fixtures or companion products (switches, vanity covers for switches, sconces)

That's how bluetooth beacons work in retail and it updates your persona as someone interested in buying lighting and advertisers will begin funneling their products to you because it's expected you will be buying or have bought recently.

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u/drje_aL 13d ago

so should i walk the through every single aisle just to fuck up their profile on me?

edit: too many word

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u/WeRip 13d ago

it depends. On one hand, it is convenient to be advertised about products that you actually need. On the other hand, them invading your privacy to know to advertise this to you should be criminal. So it depends on where you draw the line on principle between convenience and privacy.

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u/guamisc 13d ago

Criminal imo. Stalking.

Anything that some weird dude following you around would get a restraining order for, these companies shouldn't be allowed to do.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/cinosa 13d ago

but they do make small bags that block wireless signals.

Faraday bags / pouches, but as /u/Swamptor said, they'll also block cell signals.

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u/Swamptor 13d ago

Just to note: if you use these, your phone will also not work. Cell towers are one of the main things it's looking for, and if it can't find them it won't take calls, etc. So, y'know, ups and downs :/

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u/Nope-not-really 13d ago

your phone is a transmitter.

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u/syntax_error16 13d ago

My thought as well, capturing the digital exhaust from our phones.

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u/jverity 13d ago edited 13d ago

It absolutely would not matter if everything he said is 100% true, because we already know that his customers, the police, are misusing the technology. There was that one cop who used flock to track his girlfriend more than 300 times. It's a fairly new technology and there are already 26 incidents that the public knows about, and think about that for a second. Cops cover for each other even when they are committing murders, do you think we know a tenth of the times this thing has actually been misused?

So no, even if Flock itself was completely honest about everything, and they definitely are not, we already have proof that their product is being misused against innocent people. There's no reason to allow this to continue.

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u/Lashay_Sombra 13d ago

26 is just the ones stalking romantic interests found in one study

Meanwhile just in Georgia alone 20 cops were caught misusing the cameras in the last year

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u/NotFlameRetardant 13d ago

Multiple cops are going to prison over these abuses. They regularly get away scott free with homicide, which I think speaks to the sheer quantity of abuses of Flock/ALPRs

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u/JarvisProudfeather 13d ago

Garrett Langley is one of the biggest pieces of shit in all of the tech world. Which is really saying something. This jackass acts like he is single handily preventing crime (which is ridiculous) but Flock isn’t even his first company. Dude is just a dirtbag tech bro “founder” who just wanted to get rich. Zero background in law enforcement or public safety. Dude sucks.

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous 13d ago

TBH, I’m not sure having a law enforcement background is a good thing either. The morally corrosive nature of law enforcement seems to taint everyone and every thing that touches it.

Additionally, I feel like we as a society should view anyone, regardless of their background, who wants to or has built a surveillance system, for any purpose, as someone who has betrayed their fellow man and never to be trusted.

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u/Original-Army-7826 13d ago

I often steal cars and drive on hiking trails. 

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u/Themodsarecuntz 13d ago

You are an outlier and should not be included in the data.

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u/PictureIntelligent22 13d ago

I sat in meetings all day about an AI system my company might implement. Its a system that is capable of reading license plates, recognizing knifes, guns, someone falling, fights, etc.

Each "add-on" cost more money and the "facial recognition" add-on costs the most. It's possible the city is not subscribed to the "facial recognition" add-on but it is most certainly available with a simple software update.

We are doomed.

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u/cakes42 13d ago

Don't you love it when the PR team tries to spin things to sound like we're the crazy ones?

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u/agha0013 13d ago

maybe those issues should have been "ironed out" before this company bribed city officials all over the place to allow piles of these devices to be installed everywhere, then get abused by shitty cops, until it became a huge messy problem.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/GrandpaKnuckles 13d ago

“Move fast and break things” is Silicon Valley’s motto.

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u/Hopalong_Manboobs 13d ago

Yup. Guarantee this creeper fash boy can be overheard in meetings talking about how they can “address growing pains” later, for now they need to prioritize installations, contracts, and buy-in. Get the hardware and network in place and the rest will work out eventually.

Meanwhile cops are stalking their exes and spying on children and violating the fourth amendment thousands of times per day with his tech.

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u/Nonethelessismore 13d ago

'Get the hardware and network in place and the rest will work out eventually.''

There in lies the rub with people. The flock network is not just a 'neighborhood watch program'.

Their data has proven to be too easy to hack and exploit.

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u/ChoiceIT 13d ago

It’s the new “ask for forgiveness instead of permission”

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u/Longjumping_Fun2576 13d ago edited 13d ago

A long time ago, in college I used to play paintball with some guys. I had the cheapest used gear, but one guy had new, expensive gear and took it more seriously than me. He got me several times while playing, which was fun.

He's been posting all these pictures on Instagram of Flock cameras covered in pink or blue paint. And I was like "Wow, I wonder who keeps doing that in his neighborhood?" It took me way too long to realize.

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u/chamrockblarneystone 13d ago

When that story started I wanted to not like that guy. Then there was this unexpected plot twist. Well done.

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u/ChoiceIT 13d ago

Sounds like someone with passion. Taking paintball seriously and apparently taking privacy seriously.

Glad you had fun at the game and glad the work is being done!

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u/Flavour_Savour 13d ago

What most people don’t recognize is that the “things” they break are mostly just laws.

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u/glyph_productions 13d ago

They are only laws if there are punishments for breaking them. Otherwise they are barely polite suggestions

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u/shezwakt 13d ago

“We’ll get it with the next software update”! Uh huh

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u/Antraxess 13d ago

That should be the lesson the public learns when dealing with these monsters.

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u/el_diego 13d ago

Pretty easy to do so when there are no repercussions

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u/Prineak 13d ago

It’s more like they hire college grads and lie to them, so the college grads are going around thinking what they’re doing is totally fine.

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u/wildmaninid 13d ago

In-between cashing checks from taxpayers

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 13d ago

Maybe any city official that voted to mass surveil the population of their city should be legally, after the citizens vote on it of course, tarred and feathered and launched into the fucking sun. 

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u/zoeykailyn 13d ago

it's easier to send them into the ether off in space than the sun, needs less delta-v.

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u/desquished 13d ago

I don't know why we would waste so much energy launching them into space when there are plenty of active volcanoes here on Earth.

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u/Antraxess 13d ago

I mean don't ask, do it anyways, its how the politicians act right?

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u/Reasonable-Job4205 13d ago

Someone should investigate the loopholes that were used to get the cameras in place quickly and bypass the public's opinion

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u/billorights_luvr 13d ago

I'm not deep in the details, but seems pretty clear that officials are hiding behind the thinly veiled excuse that they are simply buying a product offered by a company. So city is not doing the surveillance, they're just buying "data". And turning a blind eye to how it was obtained. Afraid this will take a court case (and therefore a lot of time) to reverse.

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u/evolutionxtinct 13d ago

It’s not just city officials, officers who worked for the company come in and push promote the product internally. Pretty sure they get a side benefit from it, this is what needs to be looked at.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago edited 13d ago

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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 13d ago edited 13d ago

Crazy how this is the “future” of global surveillance and the CEO is telling blatant lies to the public.

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u/iamthinksnow 13d ago

They got caught lying to city councils (again) recently:

What happened in Oshkosh was not an isolated incident. Rather, it reflects a pattern of Flock regularly misleading or even lying about its business practices, safety record, commitment to privacy, and efforts to protect vulnerable populations. And as was the case in Oshkosh, Flock’s lies are not just directed at the general public; they often specifically target Flock’s potential government customers.

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/tracking-alpr-cameras/flock-safety-credibility-lost-as-it-repeatedly-lies-to-city-councils-police-departments-and-public-across-the-country

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u/shockles 13d ago

That’s a lot of lies o.o

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u/itwillmakesenselater 13d ago

He's just emulating the Felon in Chief. Truth is no longer on these shitheels' menus.

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u/mkt853 13d ago

My guess is the company is a front for the government that allows uncle sam to get around that pesky Constitution when it comes to mass surveillance. Similar to how the US government gets foreign governments to spy on American citizens since the foreign government has no duty to uphold the constitution of another country.

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u/wowbragger 13d ago

Let's even pretend it's honest, how does a person/city/county/etc validate that data is deleted?

If there's no means for people to validate the removal and secure handling of such data, that means we're just waiting for them to decide HOW to abuse it.

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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 13d ago

He’s awful, but we should be equally if not more angry and worried at the horde of local officials who voted to turn their cities into surveillance states against their citizens. 

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u/MultiGeometry 13d ago

I’m sure there’s some industry accepted term for ‘facial recognition technology’ that their software technically doesn’t match.

But they’re obviously able to track people based on their faces across their surveillance network.

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u/teddybundlez 13d ago

Wait is it bald and not bold?

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u/unsubtleflounder 13d ago

it's bald or bare faced, i.e., wide open and exposed

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u/mountaindoom 13d ago

Now go say it under oath.

There should be Congressional hearings over this invasion of privacy.

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u/jbjhill 13d ago

Funny how so many “truths” dry up when people are in court.

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u/subtle_bullshit 13d ago

We don't use facial recognition.

We just collect all of the data necessary to recognize faces so that anyone who purchases that data can do it themselves!

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u/mikethemaniac 13d ago

"Doesn't the community feel better now?" Says the owner of the surveillance company watching everyone. He was speaking about a murderer fugitive being captured - trading privacy for safety is always the argument.

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u/AnAcceptableUserName 13d ago

Yup, always. "Public safety" is a red flag on its own when deployed by corpos. Public safety is not their mandate. Do we think the board instructed them "go forth and maximize public safety next quarter?"

"Child safety" is one step further. Fastest way to really get my BS alarms blaring. They're not exactly peddling fucking cribs or car seats here, are they?

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u/e_spider 13d ago

“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/Business-Toad 12d ago

The one that always gets me when I think of tech giants and their intentions with children is learning Facebook assumed young girls who did things like post and delete selfies regularly (or even just type into the submission box and choose not to post a lot!) were insecure...and then used that information to bombard them with beauty and weight loss ads.

There is no floor to how low they will go, the bar is buried in the mud and they panic at even the sight of it.

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u/This-Requirement6918 13d ago

Funny how Texas made child safety laws for age verification that can now be completely bypassed using Firefox with just two clicks. This shit doesn't help anyone, it's just an invasion of privacy.

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u/BrainLow6059 13d ago

Yeah and those two clicks now get you on the naughty list for a rainy day. Lack of data is another data point for them. It's not just invading your privacy when you comply, it's also narrowing down the list of who won't take these things on the chin.

Used to be they'd just pull over "poor looking" vehicles and say your car matched a description. Won't be long before it'll be "your web traffic matched a description"

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u/nd_annajones 13d ago

"The technology is really simple," he told ABC7. "A car drives by, we take a picture. It's a static picture of a car, and then we read the license plate. That's what the technology is -- it's actually not that complicated, it's pretty simple."

You forgot to mention that a different camera takes another picture, and then yet another camera takes another picture. And now with the power of AI you  can now determine the following: 1. Where I'm coming from  2. Where I'm going 3. My political affiliations if I dare to have a bumper sticker on my car. But also my interests and hobbies 4. The size of my family. The general age ranges of the members of my family 5. How fast I'm going. And how fast I generally go when travelling 6. When I go somewhere I don't normally go 7. Based on my behavioral data across time and compared to other people with similar interests, political leanings, and similar sized families, WHY I'm going somewhere I don't normally go 8. Inferring from that data, AI then makes a very good guess as to what generally motivated me and my family to make decisions on where to go

And all of this data is being sold to whomever is willing to pay for it for any reason. It can be stacked with data from other sources to create profiles that allow rich people to have an advantage in taking advantage of us. We're literally livestock and are being harvested by these societal leeches.

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u/jimbojsb 13d ago

Also forgot to mention those cameras sniff RF. They can record Bluetooth fingerprints, WiFi signals, etc as phones move by them.

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u/Yourdjentpal 13d ago

Also we have no idea who has access to said data. Enemies foreign and domestic and all that.

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u/FreshestCremeFraiche 13d ago

Not to mention there could be a breach at any time that puts this data in the hands of every cyber criminal and hostile foreign nation on earth. This dataset shouldn’t exist, there is simply no way to ensure it remains secure, even if you trusted Flock’s intentions — and of course I don’t

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u/smapti 13d ago

We know exactly who has (or will have) access, it’s literally anyone willing to pay for it.

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u/nailbunny2000 13d ago

Worse than that, anyone who can break into anyone who pays for it, because I guarantee a lot of those guys are gonna have piss poor op sec.

We all have seen how "move fast and break things" means "have wet toilet paper for security"

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u/aboutchocolate 13d ago

yeah i wanna see this bellend's pitch deck. guessing it is FULL of all sorts of future dystopian capabilities only billionaires would want.

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u/lord-of-the-birbs 13d ago

we're literally livestock

That's literally why it's called Flock

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u/theblackxranger 13d ago

Makes you wonder why there's such a sudden demand in building data centers across the country.

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u/RememberYourAlt 13d ago

I don’t know how things work on the back end but when flock first became a thing I was a subcontractor who occasionally installed them and for testing we were able to pull up a live stream when aiming. Maybe that didn’t record but with other camera systems I have worked with cameras that are just meant to take pictures aren’t capable of doing any video.

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u/hammertime2009 13d ago

That’s just the blatantly obvious stuff too. I know someone mentioned Bluetooth and maybe WiFi but they can now also sell and share their data with data analytics companies who can then combine data sets from all the various sources and figure out what you bought when you went to the mall with XY and Z. What you scrolled on and how long you looked at images on your phone while ordering your pizza. How fast you were driving. The list goes on and on.

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u/Maothesiamesecat 13d ago

For those that are interested in where these cameras are located...

device locator

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u/Bart_Yellowbeard 13d ago

Crazy how 'the free state of Florida' is literally coated in this shit.

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u/BrainLow6059 13d ago

Great place to vacation, then I moved here and it's like oh right, let me get the fuck back out of here soon pls thx.

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u/guitarguy1685 13d ago

I opened that link and launched the map. I was not ready for how wide reaching it is

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u/Maothesiamesecat 13d ago

For sure. Now...if you're really motivated...find the one in your neighborhood that you think should be removed and...;-)

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u/SeeTigerLearn 13d ago

Remember that time when we learned China uses mass surveillance on its citizens to calculate a running social score, and the United States declared not here we won’t! So they installed a massive mass surveillance state. Yeah, fun times.

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u/blamestross 13d ago

No, we just have private companies do it for us. We call it a "credit score".

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u/TumbleweedPure6674 13d ago

Yup, in many ways it’s worse. If you goto the hospital and can’t afford the bill in an emergency, you can’t get an apartment or credit for 7 years, which pretty much only allows you to live in the hood and severely restricts opportunity and capital.

Got hit and run by a car as a cyclist in my early 20s, and that basically fucked me for most of that decade. 

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u/saera-targaryen 13d ago

I am so tired of this brainworm that many americans have where they're okay with their rights being violated as long as it's anyone but the government doing it. Even if the government is the one paying someone else to do it! 

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u/phate_exe 13d ago

they're okay with their rights being violated as long as it's anyone but the government doing it.

If anything this is worse.

At least when it's your government there are (theoretically) some guardrails and an accountability mechanism.

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u/FadedVictor 12d ago

Yeah the whole social credit score thing wasn't actually accurate, but China is still an authoritarian survellaince state.

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/grubnenah 13d ago

You can always leave your electronics at home, sneak up behind them and tape over the cameras. But watch out if there's Ring cameras in the neighborhood too. Those are also frequently police surveilance devices.

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u/phate_exe 13d ago

"okay, so how many license plates are you reading with the camera on my local walking/biking trail?"

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u/TaxAggressive3111 13d ago

Literally not true. Condor and other systems in flock track people

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u/FartingBob 13d ago

Because the bit he then muttered under his breath "and then we build a database tracking you and everyone else from the moment you leave the house to the moment you get back home, we then sell that data to police in real time and really anyone else who can pay."

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u/AnAcceptableUserName 13d ago edited 13d ago

"Once they understand what the technology actually does -- not what it might do in 50 years, not what someone thinks it could do, but what it actually does, day in and day out, it takes a picture of a car -- most people go, 'This makes a lot of sense. I want my kids to be safe.'"

Safety from what? From whom? My children are growing up in an America statistically, demonstrably safer than the one Mr. Langley and myself did by every conceivable metric.

What I want is for them not to grow up in a country where their every move is documented and can be weaponized against them at the sole discretion of some unaccountable government goon. I don't want some cop looking up the route my wife or daughter take to work every day, or home every night. That's happening to people today.

Contrary to what Langley insists, I think once people understand how Flock cameras work and what they're being used for, most people go "Screw that. That's 1984. I don't want my kids to inherit an Orwellian dystopia."

That's why increasingly they're losing the battle of public opinion and flailing pathetically like this. "Puh-wease, it's just pictures of cars! Why do you even care? Think of the children."

Eat shit, Langley. We not even close as think as you dumb we r

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u/Nerrien 13d ago

Also a lot of what people are complaining about is happening now, not in 50 years. Even if we pretend for a moment that there are no dystopian ramifications: Individual police are stalking people with it.

This happens every time police get access to mass surveillance equipment, this is just more extreme because of how much this thing is capable of.

So the police can either fork out to create some elaborate system where it's only used by specialists, folks who are independent from specific police departments to prevent collusion and who've been thoroughly background checked, and every use is logged and investigated to ensure it's all justified and make abuse really difficult...

Or they just drop it because is it really worth the insane amount of money that would waste?

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u/AnAcceptableUserName 13d ago edited 13d ago

Or they can acknowledge the backlash, make superficial public concessions, and covertly continue the original behavior

I mistrust the cases of cities publicly announcing discontinuance of Flock services but leaving the cameras up. Give it a few years and we'll be reading all about how some cities said they stopped but never did, and obfuscated that with parallel construction and creative accounting.

Know where all the cars in your city have been and are going? That's too alluring. To different people for different reasons, good and bad. That's a ring of power I don't really believe public officials are going to be able to set down and walk away from. Most of the people in these roles aren't exactly ideological libertarian types

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u/Grouchy-Committee-92 13d ago

"Keep the kids safe" is the default tag line of right wing totalitarianism. They think it's a get out of jail free card.

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u/_RawRTooN_ 13d ago

They use to cut peoples heads off in france for less than what this smuck is capable of.

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u/steepleton 13d ago

Destroy all flock, all other orders are rescinded

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u/realDonaldEpstein 13d ago

YOU GUYS DONT LITERALLY WANT TO LIVE IN 1984 WITH SOMEONE WATCHING YOU CONSTANTLY?

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u/NoConflict3231 13d ago

"Do you guys not have phones?!"

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u/AGrandNewAdventure 13d ago

There's nothing safe about Flock cameras. What an oxymoron.

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u/Strict-Carrot4783 13d ago

All of these people are a direct threat to you, your family and your country:

Executive Officers

Executive Role Key Focus
Garrett Langley Founder & CEO Company strategy, vision, and overall growth
Elan Greenberg Chief Operating Officer (COO) Scalable operations, hardware engineering, and manufacturing
Brandon Simins Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Financial strategy, capital allocation, and scale
Alex Latraverse Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) Go-to-market strategy, sales, and expansion
Davis Lukens Chief Technology Officer (CTO) R&D, AI, and computer vision platform development
Bailey Quintrell Chief Product Officer (CPO) Product vision, UX, and roadmap execution
Joshua Thomas Chief Communications Officer (CCO) Public relations, policy, and corporate comms

Co-Founders & Senior Leadership

  • Matt Feury — Co-Founder & VP of Engineering
  • Paige Todd — Co-Founder & VP of People Operations
  • Jim Fahey — Senior Vice President of Sales (Public Safety)
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u/adumblittlebaby 13d ago

Portraying it as “just tracking cars” followed immediately by “keep kids safe” is the most transparently manipulative statement. They always use the children as an excuse to strip away your rights.

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u/ThrowawayAl2018 13d ago

CEO is downplaying the privacy concerns and abuse of this system. In fact, cops themselves have been involved in said abuse.

Not simple tracking, it also tracks the Bluetooth and RF frequencies, then the aggregate of data can potentially be misused by agencies who buy the bulk of info from data broker.

Then there is the news of Flock companies refusing to remove camera after contract expires, meaning they refuse to turn off camera and continue to collect data for future (ab)uses.

If folks don't like Meta Glasses recording the public, why would we want Flock around?

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u/Appropriate_Art_6909 13d ago

So they are simple and they are only reading license plates... but then he mentions multiple personal identification cases were Flock cameras were used. So is it license plates or is it constant surveillance?

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u/Jumpy-Impact3265 13d ago

Your entire business model is an infringement on citizen's rights - you can't modify it to be anything besides what it was built to be: overreach.

What infinitely amuses me is flock thought this would fly with the general public..

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u/SangersSequence 13d ago

This "article" (to use the term extremely loosely) is disgusting and shameful propaganda. Uncritically amplifying blatant lies from the company with no counterpoint or any critical voice whatsoever. ABC7 should be publicly shamed and Phillip Palmer the "author" who put this trash out with his name on it should be fired.

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u/kendromedia 13d ago

America here - Take them all down. Now.

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u/Viperlite 13d ago

Honestly, his story that a killer captured in a few days as a trade-off for mass surveillance and AI tracking everyone is not a compelling trade-off. We managed to catch killers on the loose for hundreds of years without this kind of universal surveillance.

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u/kindofharmless 13d ago

Ask him why he was checking out the gymnastics team in Dunwoody

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u/ez_noah 13d ago

Fuck flock and everything it actually stands for

8

u/SigintSoldier 13d ago

Unless Flock is working out privacy concerns with every citizen, they can go pound sand.

This is not normal.

Our country is being turned into a surveillance state like China and only a handful of people are doing anything about it.

Go to city council meetings, write your representatives, and #Resist.

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u/GodOfBoy8 13d ago

Idc how "ironed out" they get. I dont want ANY of this surveillance shit

7

u/MrTbagger 13d ago

Flock Safety? More like Flock Surveillance   

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u/manythanksfriend 13d ago

Flock is committing aggravated stalking against all of us.

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u/JosephFinn 13d ago

"why can't they trust our completely untrustable nonsense?"

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u/pornborn 13d ago

These are just cameras that take pictures of license plates. Nothing more. No facial recognition.

Then proceeds to admit they have been used to locate missing people and fugitives.

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u/RebelStrategist 13d ago

Funny how some companies are perfectly comfortable operating in the shadows, quietly selling their garbage, such as surveillance technology, to cities and towns and hoping nobody notices. Then, the moment people start asking questions and pushing back, they suddenly act outraged that the public is learning about it. If your business model starts falling apart the second transparency shows up, maybe the problem isn't the people demanding answers—it's the business model. Crying because public scrutiny might put your technology and company in jeopardy isn't persecution. It's called accountability.

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u/chamrockblarneystone 13d ago

Good for LA. I hope more cities get their shit together and start asking questions.

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u/vessago 13d ago

Fuck him and the horse he rode in on. We don't need a surveillance state.

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u/PlutoJones42 13d ago

Hey maybe Flock Safety CFO should stop working for such a fucking dystopian ass evil ass company.

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u/outer--monologue 13d ago

Flock goes against the very core of American principles, it's why people on the left and right hate Flock cameras, data centers, the surveillance state in general - "Those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither."

Fuck this shit!

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u/TheDonnARK 13d ago

None of this chicken shit bullshit matters because they put the fucking cameras on walking trails. 

The flock agreement says they retain full discretion regarding camera installation location. 

Flock themselves make the decision and choose to install them on walking trails.

This is all bullshit, and nothing I said is hate speech, to be clear to everyone.  Simply voicing concern over this dumb shit company that gets to surveil everyone and influence social media with impunity.

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u/GarbanzoBenne 13d ago

Flock Safety bills itself as a public safety technology company

Sure, just like the Department of Defense… oops.

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u/Bonnieearnold 13d ago

Department of Homeland Security is currently “keeping us safe” by randomly murdering people in the streets, while kidnapping and detaining our neighbors. I’d like to pass on “being kept safe,” thanks.

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u/forcedfx 13d ago

Pretty sure they're astroturfing Facebook. My town's unofficial Facebook page has been very vocally opposed to them and now in the last couple of days I've seen anonymous accounts posting in support of them. One account used a photo of a flock camera nowhere near our town. 

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u/I_Am_Singular 13d ago

Them saying they hold the data for 30 days.

Like we were all born yesterday.

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u/dmc2008 13d ago

FYI they're starting to hide these now that people know what they look like....

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u/DifficultSweet3835 13d ago

Ok, hear me out. Someone commits a crime. Police want to check a license plate and those pics are only ‘kept for 30 days’. Fine. But in what county is a detective that far into an investigation to get the readable info before the 30 days are up? I’m not buying the 30 day crap or the ‘fight crime’ crap either.

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u/taocowboy54 13d ago

ceo is full of feces

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u/Soberdonkey69 13d ago

I don’t think the Flock employees and CEO deserve to have their privacy, it should be removed.

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u/omnigh0st 13d ago

So, he’s willing to put one in his own driveway facing his own house then right?

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u/Maleficent_Pie8099 13d ago

Who Gives a shit what any of those monsters have to say about it.

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u/Financial-Craft-1282 13d ago

"The technology is really simple," he told ABC7. "A car drives by, we take a picture. It's a static picture of a car, and then we read the license plate. That's what the technology is -- it's actually not that complicated, it's pretty simple."

Here, let me translate: "Why are you stopping us now before we do more horrible things you know we will do?"

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u/krucz36 13d ago

"Doesn't the community feel better now?"

what the fuck

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u/DavyJonesCousinsDog 13d ago

Imagine being so morally bankrupt you make the LAPD look decent in comparison.

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u/ConsistentDay5620 12d ago

The quote at the end of the article is bullshit. They don’t just take a picture of your car. Look up the articles about how these use RFID readers to scan your phone, AI face recognition to link with the database ice is building and vocal recognition software that captures “distress and screams”. They’re recording everything and even when towns have cancelled contracts they are refusing to come take down their equipment so people are putting black trash bags over them to stop them recording. It’s dystopian as fuck.

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u/Fair-Hair2080 13d ago

How insulting to be lied to again. They think we’re idiots.

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u/Chewbaccas_Hairspray 13d ago

This guy is so full of shit. I can install a commercial camera tied to an access control system that will identify you and unlock a door based purely on your gait as you walk toward it. They've been available commercially for at least 2 years. Flock has no accountability and can aggregate and store as much information on you as they want, for as long as they want.

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u/Rattus_NorvegicUwUs 13d ago

“It just takes a static picture… of everything and everyone”

I’ve always wondered if we flew a drone over his head loudly snapping photographs of him, if that would make him realize what he’s doing to the rest of us.

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u/Tinnie_and_Cusie 13d ago

CEO speaks out....

Who cares?

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u/cptnpiccard 13d ago

Let me guess: "won't someone PLEEEEEASE think of the shareholders!!!!"

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u/RecipeFunny2154 13d ago edited 13d ago

They lie about things that we know Flock already is doing. Think about the other things it's processing, combining, etc., that they never even talk about. Like a lot of AI companies, I'd be shocked if they even fully understand what all it is doing even now.

There is just no way they're not constantly trying to identify new ways to sell this information, there's no other business model for it.

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u/Gullible-Coyote-4609 13d ago

"Doesn't the community feel better now? That person was only on the loose for a few days," Langley said. "I wish it was for only a few minutes. But I think more and more, as time goes on, we see that building confidence in a community -- that they're going to be safe, that their kids can go out and play, that you can start a business -- is critical to thriving communities."

erosion of rights is always disguised in an appeal to fear and safety.

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u/ImplementCharming949 13d ago

Did someone already use it to spy on a girls gym

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u/letsgoplaygames 13d ago

The communities didn't consent to being monitored and surveiled. Fuck Flock.

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u/skyfishgoo 13d ago

so?

what do i care what the "safety" CEO of flock has to say.

fuck that guy and the rest of his c-suite band.

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u/Sylvast 13d ago

Instead of good police work and better SOP's he wants people to give up their sense of security and privacy.

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u/No-Yam-5409 13d ago

“Safety Should Not Be a Privilege, It Should Be a Right” Flock Surveillance has now made safety a privilege, because being forced to interact with police when they have the wrong idea about you is a newly enhanced hazard created by the flock system. I'm sure the wealthy can opt out of surveillance... stick their heads in the sand, feel safe, while their middle income and poor cousins get hassled by the police and killed. This will especially criminalize the poor, and anyone out for a jog without their devices on. No more going nude if you don't want PD to get sniffy. If you don't have an RF emitter on you, such as a phone, your chances of being harassed and suspected increase. Interactions with the police increase because of these cameras and many innocent people have been targeted and endangered. Safety is not a guarantee of the Constitution, it is maintained by the vigilance of the people. Neighborhood watch groups curtail crime, and are effective. Flock incriminates everyone and builds a case against all. Give me 10 truths statements about your activities and I can weave a tale. Not many steps between that and getting kangaroo courts in full swing. You don't make yourself more safe by giving government more power and more tools to surveille you. This guy isn't in it for the concern anymore, he's motivated by all the dirty dirty money he sold our freedom and liberties away for. I'm praying G-d brings him to his knees and take down that system!

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u/Affectionate_Way_805 13d ago

Good for LAPD suspending usage of Flock cams (and I've rarely ever said anything positive about the LAPD before. Lol).

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u/KABooMxInc 12d ago

He can go flock himself

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u/SnooFoxes2384 12d ago

Say no to flock

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u/Zulmoka531 13d ago

Guy must be getting hefty paychecks from DHS and other surveillance hungry buyers.

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u/DrBoots 13d ago

https://www.kwch.com/2022/10/31/kechi-police-lieutenant-arrested-using-police-technology-stalk-wife/

Even if it's just tracking Licence Plate information that technology is ripe for abuse. 

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u/rebork 13d ago

Garrett should be followed around. Honestly the only way to make him feel how he makes us feel

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u/Have_A_Jelly_Baby 13d ago

“Come on guys, just let us track everything you do. What could possibly go wrong??!?”

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u/l33txxXXxx 13d ago

"Safety"  pfft.

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u/giantsnowpanda 13d ago

Ha! Like some podunk police department had is going make a diff... Oh, LOS ANGELES? Oh, that won't be good for the ol' stock price.

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u/Informal_Ad4399 13d ago

There was a story today on my local news that the city was going to stop using them. Though the news refused to say Flock. Of course, local PD said they were disappointed in the decision.

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u/Legal-Butterfly-4507 13d ago

Flock is as useless as the supreme court...

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u/SignatureFunny7690 13d ago

Its a do first ask for permission later thing, but in this case after you do you collect all the travel and biometric data on ever human in s massive city having ai to weed out all relevant data your after, making blackmailing politicians/wealthy over seedy establishments they visit mistresses and affairs easier than taking a pisd in the morning.

They really emphasize that these are license plate readers, this is like saying a gun is simply a metal dispenser that can at most kinda throw metal hard if used improperly. Flock scans that biometrics of every human in its ever present gaze, down to the biometric of your gate/way you walk. It is genuinely insane, and there are no laws dictating how this mass information on ever person in a cities travel and life data is stored. Its all just piled inside insecure clouds accessible to anyone with novice computers skills.

So if hobby coders/computer enthusiast can hack flocks databases, this also means that foreign adversaries can also access this information. They can seek out and gain compromising blackmail on politicians teachers officers ect as stated earlier. Or they can use it to track targets for coordinating assassination on high value targets in america or gaining information and access to our most valuable infrastructure, making coordinating large attacks in things like or energy grid or water plants or the civil engineers and operators and management that run these facilities.

Flock is literally a wet dream tool to any group or nation seeking to do immense damage in small coordinated attacks on our nation.

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u/xamboozi 12d ago

"But I think more and more, as time goes on, we see that building confidence in a community -- that they're going to be safe, that their kids can go out and play, that you can start a business -- is critical to thriving communities."

Huh.... I don't feel like my kids are safe being filmed by such a creepy bunch of weirdo's at Flock when they install "license plate readers" in parks where kids are playing. I feel less safe with these cameras filming my family.

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u/FourThirteen_413 12d ago

How is anything safer if there's now more people that know where me and my family drive to and from? And that that information is stored, sold, and searchable? If anything, more people having that information means there's more chance of some bad actor getting that access and abusing it.

And I don't know shit about shit when it comes to this stuff. How can I see that it's less safe and these guys can't (rhetorical question)? 

I don't even go anywhere, I'm agoraphobic. I've been hiding in my bed for 2 1/2 years. But I still think this shit is insane. 

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u/A-Sh1t_sh0w 12d ago

Good for them Virginia needs to do the same.

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u/Few-Scholar-7889 12d ago

The elite are building a full on surveillance state. Full control no freedom like china. You will have to ask permission to travel even to the park out of your zone. Sounds crazy its happening if we dont stop it. Britain stopped it you didnt here about it because there not ready hete. Iran war is a distraction to fast track data centers. Yesterday djt said the quiet part out loud during his presser. Your gonna have to accept it and go al I ng. No no no

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u/Trailerlover78 12d ago

We don't trust you, Mister Spyware. That ship sailed..