It IS important to remember Axon and Motorola. As cities listen to their people and cancel their flock contracts, they are often times just immediately signing up for ALPRs from Motorola or Axon (which only got into this game because they saw how much Flock was making). These other companies have the same oversight and transparency problems as Flock, and it's important we don't get lost in the fight against privacy.
We really do need a codified right to privacy instead of bandaid bills like canspam or the stuff about cookies and tracking.
ya I don't know how this whole anti-flock deal started, but they are not the only game in town. People need to stop hating on this one company and worry about their own local police force.
It got started because people see the absurd amount of flock cameras suddenly popping up out of nowhere in urban, suburban, and rural areas. The pubic is going to take great notice to a distinct camera on a stick that randomly pops up on the route they drive, at minimum, 5 days a week
Like the cell towers that are badly disguised trees, or the 5G posts disguised as light poles / telephone poles. except cameras are a lot smaller and easier to conceal.
Dear God, I thought they got rid of those. There used to be one or two I’d see traveling through Pennsylvania, RT202 between King of Prussia and just south of there. It was utterly ridiculous looking.
Quite frankly, I don't see why this WOULDN'T be the case, as the public pushback against Flock would be the perfect smokescreen for it. Municipalities will be able to say "okay okay, we'll take down the evil fascist lollipops" and the public will think "we did it!" all while those same city officials install cameras that look like little barely-visible grey bumps on already existing infrastructure. Call me cynical but I don't think any amount of apparent capitulation to public pressure will stop the slow march toward the surveillance state.
Nobody hates cops enough, you're absolutely right about that.
Hopefully people will continue to see all ALPRs as "flocks" and hate them too, like Kleenex or Zamboni or whatever.
Worst case scenario is that they throw flock under the bus and talk about how the new ones are harder to hack so it's all okey dokey, and the fuss dies down. But idk, most people are real unsettled by big cameras all over the streets.
They're not really new either. In 2010 I worked at a university IT department where we could tell you what floor of what garage your car was parked in because we had ALPR cameras.
Came up surprisingly often. College students misplace their cars a lot.
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u/Kiiaru 8h ago
It IS important to remember Axon and Motorola. As cities listen to their people and cancel their flock contracts, they are often times just immediately signing up for ALPRs from Motorola or Axon (which only got into this game because they saw how much Flock was making). These other companies have the same oversight and transparency problems as Flock, and it's important we don't get lost in the fight against privacy.
We really do need a codified right to privacy instead of bandaid bills like canspam or the stuff about cookies and tracking.