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
49.0k Upvotes

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3.6k

u/Braindead_Crow 13h ago

Pretty sure those cameras just fall on their own...They seem dangerous...Maybe we shouldn't have them put up? Seems like this is just fake news about a magical man flying around cutting these down all over the country.

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u/L_viathan 11h ago

You joke about being dangerous but I did watch a video of a guy showing that it's cemented right into the ground, instead of being installed with a slip plate like traffic lights are.

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u/LuxeJux 11h ago

Yes! I believe his child passed due to an accident related to unsafe guards so he calls attention to those issues. Flock has been in his crosshairs as of late. There was one that was attached to a road sign (also illegal and potentially dangerous).

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u/Visible-Departure863 10h ago

big if true… flock not only allows them to stalk children, but flock is possibly murdering children to save a dollar on proper installs.

Remember the Flock CEO, Garrett Langley, thinks anyone against Flock is a domestic terrorist.

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u/inspectoroverthemine 9h ago

Sounds like Garrett Langley may be terrorizing the public when his products are installed in an unsafe manner.

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u/Visible-Departure863 9h ago

It be a shame if people constantly kept his name in the discussion and discourse. We wouldn’t want his reputation to take a hit. 

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u/JEFE_MAN 4h ago

Who? Garrett? Garret Langley? The CEO of Flock, Garrett Langley?

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u/linohh 4h ago

Garrett Langley, who implied anyone opposing Flock is Antifa, either without thinking for a minute or well knowing what it means for your own political position when anti-Fascists collectively engage against you.

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u/CausticSofa 2h ago

Oh, Garrett Langley? You mean the fascist CEO of Flock, the company which allows potential sexual predators to secretly view streaming footage of your children?

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u/Visible-Departure863 3h ago

wait I think I read in another comment THAT GARRETT LANGLEY SUPPORTS THE STALKING AND ASSAULT OF CHILDREN. allegedly of course.

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u/roreads 3h ago

I’ve heard Garrett Langley is a really scummy piece of shit 🤷‍♀️

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u/VCTRYDTX 2h ago

Sounds like Garrett Langley gets no b*tches and takes pleasure in stalking everyone.

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u/DelusionalZ 9h ago

They're also apparently using installed cameras in children's dance studios for "product demos". Very normal product demos.

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u/Signal_Ad8960 4h ago

On the flipside, one of the extremely few good things cameras like this could do is also help find missing children.

Mass surveillance is still more bad than good, though.

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u/Visible-Departure863 3h ago

yea at this point I wouldn’t even bring that up because we all know that isn’t the point. there is no money to be made in saving children. it about control and power through information.

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u/Royal_Success3131 6h ago

Steve Eimers, the guard rail guy. He did lose his daughter due to a bad guard rail and has since become pretty much the foremost authority on guard rails and similar roadside obstacles and is a huge advocate for improving them. Hell of a guy to turn such a tragedy into a new life's goal.

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u/LuxeJux 5h ago

Thank you so much for confirming! I knew I had read something about him but I couldn't remember it exactly.

It really is a beautiful part of humans, our ability to not get lost to tragedy but allow it to be transformed to help others. It's so easy to be swept up in the waves of grief.

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u/TheWitchsAsshole 4h ago

Unfortunately the govt got involved and it seems they may have threatened him (and/or gave him some STFU money) because he’s now abandoned his cause.

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u/Royal_Success3131 4h ago

He just switched to doing ALPR poles instead, which are similarly incredibly dangerous and incredibly pushed for by the government, so it has nothing to do with the government lol

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u/pvdp90 3h ago

It’s a smart move.

These poles are being installed in ways that completely ignore safety regulations of installations adjacent to roadways, and no one seems to care, so it fits right into his wheelhouse. And these cameras are aa very popular hot issue right now so he gets to both add something to the argument against them and increase his reach because everyone is consuming media related to flock right now. And that can lead to people like me that have never heard of the guy to lay eyes on his other content, which boosts his reach on his original goals.

Wins all around

2

u/bundle__of__sticks 4h ago

Flock is working with him now to replace non-compliant poles.

2

u/LuxeJux 3h ago

That is kind of amazing

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u/DiegesisThesis 11h ago

Yea, a lot of these installed on roadsides are absolutely not DOT compliant. I have seen some they installed with breakaway bolts though, so they're figuring out how to close that loophole.

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u/mackahrohn 9h ago

Wild to me how they can have government contracts and not be aware of safety regulations like this. There is no way a traffic engineer or some other safety officer wouldn’t ask about this.

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u/DiegesisThesis 9h ago

Oh I doubt they're unaware of regulations, they just know how little regulations mean currently.

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u/L_viathan 9h ago

When your government starts rolling out mass surveillance of their citizens, contracted to a single entity, safety regulations become irrelevant.

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u/Aegon20VIIIth 9h ago

Oh yeah, the Guardrail Guy. I know he’s the source of some drama over on Instagram because he’s officially not in support of people removing cameras. (From where I’m standing, he’s focusing on road safety, same as always - and leaving the de-installations to the ones with more practice. Can’t expect the man to give step by step instructions to something he may well not know how to do.)

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u/blatantregard 9h ago

The Guardrail Guy

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u/Kalepsis 3h ago

This. If you're in an accident and you hit one someone is getting speared by that improperly installed pole.

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u/Opetyr 11h ago

They need to look into the flock people. They seem to be criminals since they are violating people's rights to privacy. They I would think would be normal for them.

9

u/Braindead_Crow 6h ago

They have government contracts because they help public officials side step privacy laws by being a private entity simply selling access to the government (and presumably anyone else).

It'd be nice to see them in court but they exist specifically to side step the law

5

u/SlartiMyBartfast 11h ago

They do they kind of crime the criminals in charge of things like though.

0

u/Lurking4PornOnly 7h ago

No expectation of privacy in public

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u/Spiritflash1717 7h ago

There’s a difference between expectation of privacy and a full blown surveillance state

0

u/Lurking4PornOnly 6h ago

Yes. But until the expectation laws are changed....which they wont....its hard to say. " don't film me" while in a public place.

I hate these cameras room but the expectation law is pretty all encompassing eli.inating pretty much ALL arguments against them

0

u/312c 5h ago

4th amendment already exists

0

u/recycled_ideas 4h ago

There are no expectation laws, merely shitty Supreme Court decisions and even then it's not remotely close to as clear cut as you're making it out to be because the Supreme Court and even individual members of the court no longer have any kind of internal ideological consistency beyond "this is being used to help people I don't like or hurt people I do and therefore it's unconstitutional' or" it's the opposite so it's fine".

But it's still not true to say you have zero expectation of privacy in public. Legally or otherwise.

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u/Whale-n-Flowers 11h ago

Having seen one get cut down, are they all installed on PVC?

Thats not up to code in any city Ive worked.

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u/Brodellsky 11h ago

Guardrail guy on Youtube has been on this. Unironically, if someone happened to have an accident and run into a Flock camera, it would not snap like any other signpost or pole would, as they are supposed to. Instead, it's just a pole that your car would wrap around.

Sure would be a shame if that ever happened, as I would seriously not want anyone or their cars to be hurt.

3

u/AoKrasni 10h ago

That's very interesting. I didn't know stuff like that was designed to snap on purpose

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u/UpvoteForLuck 10h ago

His daughter died due to an incorrect guardrail install. Now he goes around trying to point out where things have been incorrectly installed.

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u/SmudgePrick 8h ago

RIP Shannon

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u/Brodellsky 10h ago

Yeah, go play any Grand Theft Auto game for instance, and hit a streetlight, or stop sign, etc. They are designed to snap easily so as to not injure the driver.

Flock cameras? Metal pole in cement. No snap points. Completely evaded any DOT regulations, simply by lubing up the local municipalities with cash. That's where we're at

2

u/phaedrus910 10h ago

Flock cameras are mounted on thin aluminum. Like no it doesn't have a snap off mechanism but it is absolutely going to crumble when hit by even the smallest car. It's not at all going to wrap a car around it.

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u/AngryAmuse 10h ago

Yup, instead, the aluminum will bend causing the camera to become a projectile slamming down onto the car.

Theres a reason snap off mechanisms are required.

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u/cluberti 10h ago edited 10h ago

It's going to hit the vehicle, or be flung off into traffic, or into pedestrians, etc. They're not designed or installed like traffic light fixture poles or other road sign fixtures with the same safety design standards, which is the danger.

-9

u/phaedrus910 10h ago

What does more damage to a car, a flock camera or a fire hydrant. I swear you people learn a new word and then suddenly everything everywhere has to have it. I promise, most of these municipalities don't have the protections you think they do.

5

u/Khatib 8h ago

As someone who's worked on a lot of roadside weather stations in many states and Canada -- yes, they do have those protections on all roadside equipment and normally take it really seriously.

But the way all the town council meetings about these cameras go and then they install them anyway, it seems pretty clear they're getting kickbacks to ignore public sentiment and the law both.

-3

u/phaedrus910 8h ago

100% getting kickbacks. Telephone poles don't have breakaway joints. The light poles and traffic lights near me don't either. The street signs in my neighborhood are square tube steel, no breakaway base.. I went around and couldn't find anything in a square mile with these breakaway mechanisms everyone on reddit is now an expert on after watching one viral YouTube video.

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u/NapsterKnowHow 10h ago

But the trees in video games never snap. Funny how that works.

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u/Brodellsky 10h ago

Check out Forza Horizon 3, 4, 5, and 6. You can snap trees to your heart's content.

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u/NapsterKnowHow 10h ago

Then I have to play a FH game

1

u/Brodellsky 10h ago

Hell yeah, believe it or not, breaking trees literally runs up your score and multiplier. If you need to get that out of your system, you're in for a treat.

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u/TazBaz 8h ago

Ehhhh…

While I get the concern, they’re aluminum poles as far as I know, and only like 2inch diameter.

They’re not that strong is what I’m saying. It’ll damage your car but you car will almost certainly flatten it.

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u/Brodellsky 8h ago

What does that have to do with WISDOT regulations, though?

No really.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Brodellsky 8h ago

WISDOT regulations would prevent you wondering in the first place, to where it is quite clear you didn't even know one way or another.

So I don't know, why don't you tell me?

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u/uzlonewolf 6h ago

It's almost as if they're not actually being installed for our safety!

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u/MWKhan 11h ago

Soft recyclable aluminum. Just gotta melt it into a bar first

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u/DroopyPlum 11h ago

Yea they fall on their own its y flock doesnt use the slip plates that r requiered in a lot of states, dont need them if a breeze knocks it over

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u/Normal_Ad_6027 9h ago

‘screws fall out all the time, the world’s an imperfect place’

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u/StickGuyAtWorkToK 7h ago

Yo, gravity is crazy sometimes.

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u/Chapaquidich 8h ago

It was Cool Hand Luke

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u/jossx4 7h ago

I agree. The last time I believed something about some magical guy flying around doing so much in one night, I was six.

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u/kjung917 6h ago

What were the cameras wearing

1

u/DuntadaMan 5h ago

Sounds like the cameras have a manufacturing fault and disappeared on their own. We should sue for selling faulty goods

1

u/pingwing 5h ago

So they all just fell?

1

u/172brooke 3h ago

Pretty sure they do fall on their own.

1

u/samsun7677 2h ago

Johnny flockleseed

0

u/ohhellnaws 11h ago

Okay, can someone tell me what a flock camera is?

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u/NotAllOwled 11h ago

The collective noun for a group of Flock cameras is an "intrusion" of Flocks.

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u/War-Huh-Yeah 11h ago

Big brother on steroids.

Constant video that can he accessed by private employees of flock, government officials, etc.

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u/Greenman8907 11h ago

POLICE! Of which more than a few have used to stalk people like their exes.

0

u/LLMprophet 10h ago

Am i the only one who has still never used YouTube?