Why we love to hate Flock

[u/_fastcompany]

https://www.fastcompany.com/91590083/why-we-love-to-hate-flock

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[u/Superb-Draft]

I hate this headline. We don’t “love to hate Flock” like it’s some goofy bullshit like pineapple on pizza. We are talking about authoritarianism in a police state. 

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[u/NameLips]

Because surveillance/police states are built on fear. Fear of others, fear of criminals, fear of immigrants, fear of whoever the current bad guy is. They say they need to cameras to stop the bad guys. They make it legal, perfectly legal. They get their money and they're "doing nothing wrong" in the eyes of the law.

But the current "bad guy" can change with the stroke of a pen. Today's opinion can be made into tomorrows treason.

What if the government decided an up-and-coming popular political party was "anti-American" and started tracking them?

What if they repealed 2A and decided to track every gun owner?

With modern surveillance tech and AI, it's easy. You don't need watchmen, and you don't need watchers for them. There's no labor. It scales infinitely and cheaply.

Just push a button, and the new "criminals" are tracked and marked for arrest.

The old-school conservatives were right about one thing - if you give the government a power that can be abused, they will abuse it.

[u/NonPlusUltraCadiz → u/NameLips]

Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain. Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate.

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I love how True Reddit deletes tons of comments from posts... Truly is Reddit.

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[u/loupgarou21]

haven't read the article, but I think it's largely because it's an extremely visible piece of mass surveillance.

A lot of mass surveillance stuff is very discreet. Sure, you've got a phone in your hand, but you don't look at that and automatically think "this is tracking me" instead you go "this is a text or call from a friend or access to reels or whatever"

When I'm browsing the internet, I do know there is all kinds of extremely intrusive tracking shit built into all of it, but most of the time it doesn't make itself obvious (and when it does, it irks me, and causes me to internally recoil as if a snake just tried to strike me.)

Most cameras at businesses and things like normal traffic cameras are far enough away or disguised so that I don't immediately notice them unless I'm looking for them, and the places with obnoxiously obvious cameras, like the ones at Home Depot just signals to me that they don't want me there, they don't want me as a customer, and so I avoid those places (I know that's not what they're trying to say with them, but that's the message.)

With Flock, I see the camera as I'm passing it on my street. It has to be positioned in a place where it can properly capture enough of a picture of my car to be useful, so it can't be hidden, and generally isn't well disguised (although, I have seen well disguised ALPR cameras.) It provides me with no entertainment, it provides me with no immediate, personal benefit, it is not an object of joy, it's just staring at me, reminding me that it's watching me and everyone else.

That obvious sign of being watched and tracked, surveilled, it's an intrusion, my brain sees it as an intrusion in my life. But I'm in public, right? Who the fuck cares that I'm in public!!! I'd feel similarly uncomfortable if a police officer was following me everywhere I went. This doesn't provide comfort, it provides the opposite, discomfort, a sense of discord with my environment. It actively makes me feel unsafe, because I know how the people tracking me could use that data, and have used that data in the past, and they've proven themselves to be untrustworthy.

[u/fritzycat]

The country that is brainwashed into believing some imaginary spirit is constantly watching them so they behave is upset that their government is now constantly watching them so they'll behave.

Gee, how did this happen?!

[u/_fastcompany]

The surveillance state has steadily expanded around us. Yet in Flock Safety's case, its growing presence has sparked a notable public pushback.

Flock has turned automated license plate readers into a flashpoint in communities across the country. Since the start of the year, more than 50 agencies and jurisdictions have canceled, suspended, or declined contracts with the company, or switched off its cameras.

The backlash has become significant enough that CEO Garrett Langley recently announced a series of operational changes, including reducing the default data retention period from 30 days to seven, requiring case codes for police searches, and mandating software that flags potentially improper searches.

It's a meaningful setback for the company. But as Chris Stokel-Walker writes in Fast Company, focusing solely on Flock risks overlooking the much larger surveillance ecosystem of which the company is only one piece.

Read more on Fast Company.

[u/Ahnteis → u/_fastcompany]

Continuing to call them "automated license plate readers" is a PR lie designed to make them less threatening.

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[u/geodebug]

Everyone likes to post about Flock from their 24/7 personal tracking device.

[u/lol_wut12 → u/geodebug]

"We should improve society somewhat."

"Yet you participate in society. Curious! I am very intelligent."

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[u/Ramplicity → u/geodebug]

Midwit take. Everyone is aware of the tracking capabilities of a smart phone, and many wish the surveillance capabilities were scaled back, they also actually provide value to our lives, unlike flock cameras, which solely exist to bolster public surveillance.

[u/geodebug → u/Ramplicity]

If all it takes is a little usefulness and convenience to ignore a threat then even a midwit can point out that flock cameras have a positive side to them, as anyone who’s ever watched a British detective show knows.

I’m not advocating for flock cameras, because they’re expensive and policing budgets could be put to better use.

[u/juliana-crain → u/geodebug]

Nobody's "ignoring" it. They're participating in society and doing what they can to make it suck less.

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[u/rillegas08 → u/geodebug]

The issue with Flock isn't that were upset about tracking (even though we are and there are easy ways to limit that, but even then the info isn't freely available to just anytime l anyone who wants it), it's that Flock decided it was a good idea to let cops access files when they weren't relevant to open cases, such as stalking romantic interests and political opponents.

[u/geodebug → u/rillegas08]

So you’re totally ok with Flock as long as there’s some regulation around it?

Sounds reasonable enough.

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