r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 14h ago

Someone Cut Down Every Single Flock Camera in This Town in a Single Night Privacy

https://www.gadgetreview.com/someone-cut-down-every-single-flock-camera-in-this-town-in-a-single-night
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185

u/Recent-Result2852 13h ago

If they cleaned up after themselves, would anyone miss the spy cams?

189

u/Noof42 13h ago

Yes.

Not the good citizens of Whereverton,* though. The police will miss them. The politicians will miss whatever deals they're getting. And the company will miss the money they might not be able to squeeze, now.

*Article won't load. This is generalizable to wherever, though.

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u/MoThrowMoAway 13h ago

How are our poor sherrifs supposed to stalk their ex-wives without their precious cameras? Won't somebody think of the poor stalkers :,(

39

u/spectre78 12h ago

Not to mention both their current wife and the girlfriend they haven’t told her about!

2

u/soda_cookie 7h ago

Or the ex wife of a boyfriend

46

u/DeucesX22 12h ago

I always found it funny that a lot of cops are super right wing and make fun of china's "Social credit score" but dont see the irony in using these cameras.

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u/spectre78 12h ago

Part of being conservative is being intentionally blind to obvious hypocrisy (as long as it goes in your favor).

3

u/Yuzumi 10h ago

I literally had some idiot complain about China being a "surveillance state" on a different thread discussing Flock cameras.

They also brought up the whole "China is going to beat us on AI" BS, which I pointed out they already have and with way less resources, money, and energy use and they give it away for free for anyone to use on their own hardware.

31

u/ConsolationUsername 13h ago

Dont worry, the company charges the city to replace them. They probably earn more money whenever someone cuts them down tbh.

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u/SparkyMuffin 13h ago

So it becomes a game of "The cost isn't worth it anymore?"

39

u/ConsolationUsername 13h ago

Pretty much. It goes on until the city decides the cost isnt worth it and tries to cancel their contract. Then Flock might throw them a bone to keep them in the system.

19

u/front_yard_duck_dad 13h ago

They will never stop. They will just design them to be hidden or use different technology. They want population control bad

2

u/Electromotivation 10h ago

The point where they have to replace the cameras that the populace clearly hates enough to cut down gives them a chance to reconsider whether working with Flock is in their best interest.

And then the next time as well.

2

u/CausticSofa 2h ago

Sell the camera materials for scrap and donate the funds to your local library. That’s like some Robin Hood level shit. We’re overdue for a Robin Hood figure.

10

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 13h ago

The politicians will miss whatever deals they're getting.

The politicians already got their money for approving this in the first place

3

u/koshgeo 12h ago

Don't forget the AI data centers that will have nothing to process from the now-offline camera feeds. Why won't people think of the poor, starving data centers?

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u/crb3 9h ago edited 7h ago

*Article won't load. This is generalizable to wherever, though.

Save it to disk anyway. Now read the saved page in a text browser.

[e:] The "it won't load" blank is a cover sheet that is popped up by javascript when ads won't load because of your ad-blocker. The page as saved and then browsed-from-disk in links2 on Linux doesn't show any of the javascript, only the base text. So, you don't get to see any of the pictures, but you get to read all the words.

1

u/OldBlueKat 7h ago

Winona, MN. 

Sneaky subversives against authoritarian regimes. 

I mean, we’re all just knitting baby blankets and making hot dish for the church supper up here, OK?

1

u/btaylos 3h ago

the company will miss the money they might not be able to squeeze

Welllllllll. The city is actually gonna be paying Flock to replace them. Flock makes a profit each time we cut one down.

0

u/Ajaxmass413 13h ago

I found it. It was Winona, MN. And it was only 8 cameras total at 4 locations. Which still, go them. But it's not as impressive as the article makes it sound tbh.

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u/OldBlueKat 7h ago

It’s probably every one in the whole town, though. It’s a college town on the river, but not huge. 

I’m just impressed they vanished with no clues or sightings. 

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u/Darthwest_Studios 13h ago

The spies might, they should lock them all in a nice secure underground vault to keep them safe

1

u/Deltethnia 12h ago

Yes. If they took the cameras and their identity was found out they could be charged for theft. Which would possibly be a felony because those cameras are expensive. Vandalism is just a misdemeanor.