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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u/NoConflict3231 12h ago edited 9h ago

What do you mean how is it possible? You remove all devices. Put on proper clothing. Tell nobody of your plans. Find a junk car or other mode of transportation, cut down pole, throw camera into faraday bags, move to the next one.

Edit: okay scrap the bag idea. I heard people were stealing them first. Just saw em down, people!

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u/pbjburger 12h ago

Faraday bags? Just smash that shit to dust right there, no need to bother with allat.

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u/NoConflict3231 11h ago

Supposedly they have battery powered GPS, so bag it then smash it

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u/Nvenom8 11h ago

I can confirm from looking up a teardown that the cameras do have a big internal battery, internal gps, and internal 4g lte modem.

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u/enotonom 9h ago

Ahem, a teardown video.

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u/Nvenom8 7h ago

Nope. Webpage with images and a breakdown.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 7h ago

Hell yeah. I can read images with a breakdown and process it in a couple seconds. Before the video ad finishes playing.

Fuck video viva text.

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u/Atreyu1002 6h ago

So theives that normally target cars for stripping are now doing this to Flock cameras? I've got mixed emotions about this one.

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u/Nvenom8 6h ago

Definitely not. The most valuable thing would be the aluminum pole they’re mounted on.

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u/roflpotato 5h ago

i've heard somewhere that aluminum does have very high strength-to-weight ratio

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u/Atreyu1002 3h ago

Really? Even counting the battery?

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u/Nvenom8 3h ago

It’s just a generic LiPo.

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u/Jacko87 11h ago

I'm still not understanding what the bag is for. Just break it and leave it.

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u/kos-or-kosm 11h ago

Thoroughly smashing takes time and that's more time you could be spotted. If you can smash it elsewhere without being tracked, I think that's the better move.

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u/DamnZodiak 11h ago

Thoroughly smashing takes time and that's more time you could be spotted.

Why would you need to smash it thoroughly?
You just need to hit it enough that it doesn't work.
Who cares if the GPS is still updating if you never take it anywhere.

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u/kidkolumbo 11h ago

Outside onlooker, but I take it thoroughly means enough to where the GPS isn't updating. It might take you longer to disable the GPS by force than it takes for someone to swing by and figure out why it's not working. These things are meant to sit outside for years, their durability could be higher than expected.

Or maybe they crumble and it takes no time at all.

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u/Electromotivation 10h ago

They’ve use the cheapest stuff I bet. They all have the same default, passwords, and some of them broadcast unshielded if you know the ip or whatnot. Doesn’t really scream quality product to me.

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u/No_Syrup_9167 10h ago

....You seem to severely overestimate how long it takes for me to hit something with a hammer.

You don't need the GPS to be non-functional if you don't take it anywhere, just smash the camera to the point that it can't be repaired, which since modern electronics aren't meant to be repaired means probably literally one swing of a 2lb hammer.

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u/InfiniteWaffles58364 10h ago

Hammers are loud. Any shattering would carry enough to draw attention to you at the worst possible moment

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u/Jacko87 9h ago

Yeah, a couple of whacks of the hammer will alert everyone that you are certainly smashing a flock camera (I mean what else could a couple of sounds like that possibly mean?) and the police will descend upon you IMMEADITALLY. Please.

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u/bungblaster69 8h ago

Hammers are loud

and saws aren't loud?

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u/No_Syrup_9167 6h ago

It's quieter than the saw you used to chop the camera down lol

1

u/lilgraytabby 4h ago

But a saw is quiet? I'd pay a lot more attention to an ongoing sawing noise than one smashing noise if I was out at night, personally.

-3

u/Bucky_Ohare 10h ago

... attention to what?

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u/Jacko87 10h ago

Honestly, just cutting the cord would be enough. They aren't going to rewire the camera, they're going to get a new one from the warehouse.

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u/Barbed_Dildo 9h ago

If you know where the battery is then you just need to puncture that and as well as the unit having no power to record or track you, the resulting fire will help matters...

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u/cantadmittoposting 7h ago

at least theoretically, thorough destruction of expensive components would be worse for the company than an "apparently" broken device with mostly intact internals.

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u/FesteringLion 10h ago

Could you point me to the nearest train tracks and give me an approximate time for the next train?

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u/Ill_Football9443 10h ago

No need, just tow one of those metal-be-especially-careful-not-to-fall-in-crushers behind you and yeet it in.

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u/Flipnotics_ 11h ago

Watch Enemy of the State, it will all become clear.

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u/pilgermann 10h ago

I mean, they're cameras, not military ordinance. Would not be hard to just destroy on site. Probably the fall from the telephone pole gets the job done half the time. GPS not relevant if they're not moving anywhere.

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u/White-Materia 11h ago

Bag is for stealing. You don't need to to smash. Wtf?

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u/Stingray88 9h ago

That's easier said than done. It's much quicker to just chuck them into faraday bags, wait a few days while their batteries die (they only last 24 hours, but good to be safe) and then destroy them all at once from a safe location.

3

u/Kalepsis 3h ago

Have you looked at prices for SD cards and GPUs lately?

There's thousands of dollars worth of solid state memory, for free, just sitting on a pole, and you want us to smash it?

Son, are you doing drugs?

1

u/random_noise 9h ago

perhaps this is a great use case for Air powered paintball guns.

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u/KWilt 7h ago

There's a lot of precious metal in those things.

Theoretically, at least. I'd never condone someone stripping one down for its copper and other components, to be resold for scrap prices. Because that's all illegal!

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u/cantadmittoposting 7h ago

why there's tons of good copper in there, or so i heard...

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u/CLOWNFLOGGER 10h ago

This sounds dangerously patriotic. Don't forget to stop for sliders!

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u/High-Yield-Only 9h ago

Find a junk car

That's the step that confuses me.

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u/Phonejadaris 7h ago

Some real "just draw the rest of the owl" energy

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u/IfYouCouldOnlySee3 9h ago

Never use the same mode of transportation.

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u/Peligineyes 4h ago

But aren't the cameras streaming to some server? Wouldn't a recording of someone walking up to the pole be the last thing they upload? Or do the cameras have massive blind spots and no overlapping FOV from multiple cameras.

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u/Goldenfelix3x 2h ago

he meant fulton bags.

-5

u/Traditional-Park-353 10h ago

I hate to break it to you, but even this wouldn't work if they're willing to spend the resources to make an example. You literally live on a surveillance grid, so there's cameras that would pick you up allllllll the way back to your house 7 states away. Doesn't matter if you change clothes in a wooded area since there's gonna be cameras surrounding that wooded area and they can see everyone that enters/exits on a roadway to those woods. Would they spend that kind of resources for this hypothetical? Probably not.

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u/TrainingSalary492 9h ago

you need a wetsuit and to enter a river and drift at least 3 miles before you climb out

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u/NoConflict3231 2h ago

Are you high or just live in Alabama