Flock Wants the Most Detailed Map of Its Surveillance Cameras Taken Offline

Flock Wants the Most Detailed Map of Its Surveillance Cameras Taken Offline theintercept.com

A new map shows Flock has more cameras in the U.S. than was previously known. The company wants the map taken down.

183 points•bookofjoe•2 days ago•87 comments•

#map #cameras #taken #flock #surveillance #offline #detailed #flock wants

87 comments

IMO, when they have to hide, that's the beginning of the end. Too many people are aware of the what/why now. And above all else, once the tables turn on elected officials and they realize they're under the same surveillance, I bet their tune will change (likely due to a public egg-on-face moment involving illegal or suspicious activity). If people keep the pressure on, this will be a "remember when" rather quickly.

Cider99862 days ago

Government officials should be highly transparent. Privacy for the people, transparency for the government.

dylan6042 days ago

I'm waiting to find out that Flock systems do not log the data when the plates are recognized as gov't issued plates.

awesome_dude2 days ago

There's a balance that needs to be struck, politicians are humans too

FireBeyond2 days ago

Some of that is already happening, in DC of all places, where the DC Police Officer's Union is protesting against use of Flock by ... the DC Police (albeit Internal Affairs).

Something about "this technology is invasive and violates the right to privacy of our members"...

N_Lens2 days ago

"People building the torment nexus never thought they'd also be the ones to get strapped into it."

tothrowaway2 days ago

> [Doppel] filed a trademark infringement complaint regarding his site, claiming to be working on Flock’s behalf. Doppel says that the site is using the trademark “FLOCK SAFETY” without authorization

Warning to anyone who receives these types of notices from Doppel. They are a defamation-as-a-service company. If the frivolous trademark notice doesn't work, they will follow it up with a letter to your host claiming that you're running a phishing website. If your host is lazy and paranoid (like OVH), they will block your IP immediately, and you'll have to deal with the fallout. Expect the letter to be sent on a Friday afternoon too.

walrus012 days ago

My biggest take away from this is that there's still a market niche for small, independent, feisty hosting companies that have some balls. For instance archive.is (which undoubtedly receives many legal threats) seems to be in a /24 IP block belonging to an Estonian hosting company in Talinn.

The bigger a hosting company gets the more likely it is to near fully automate its abuse process.

> If your host is lazy and paranoid (like OVH), they will block your IP immediately

I would guess that this is something like a process that, if it's even reviewed by a human at all, some grossly overworked, underqualified and underpaid person working in a call center type environment looks at it for 20 seconds in a massive abuse queue pile of tickets, and has a GUI button in front of them to mash which disables an account and all its services immediately.

Chris20482 days ago

> claiming that you're running a phishing website

Is this not defamation?

croes2 days ago

> They are a defamation-as-a-service company.

segmondy2 days ago

So why can't people do the same to Doppel? Back in the day folks use to take bad people offline, take down their sites, their phone lines, turn off their electricity. They are lucky these stupid kids hacking rubbish sites haven't found them yet and a will to fight what some might consider the good fight.

They are also lucky that folks are not fighting them in court and draining their wallets.

bilekas2 days ago

I am starting a surveillance company in the US. I'll sell the data to anyone who wants. I'll put cameras up wherever I like, call it protection of the people, the police will enjoy it doing a lot of work for them and then I'll point cameras squarely at my competition, 24 hours a day, 365 a year, until they ask for regulations.

If anyone would like to kickstart let me know.

ejj282 days ago

Y Combinator had no problem backing Flock, you should give them a try.

bilekas2 days ago

Flock are competition, their investors would never like my idea.

derbOac2 days ago

If Flock wants to be used by public services, it should be subject to maximum transparency. If you don't want your camera locations public, don't offer them to the public for their use.

antonvs2 days ago

It’s hilarious that the entire business model is based on aggregating information recorded in public, and now they’re objecting to having their information publicly recorded and aggregated.

Perhaps if they could explain why they don’t want that information to be available, they’ll understand how their victims feel.

AKSF_Ackermann2 days ago

I would like to point out that the website in question has a button to download the entire dataset. Probably would be a good idea to save a copy.

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

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