Stop Flock
by cdrnsf on 4/14/2026, 9:56:05 PM
Comments
by: bmitch3020
I don't want to stop Flock the company. I want to stop Flock the business model, along with all the other mass surveillance, and the data brokers. If the business models can't be made illegal, it should at least come with liabilities so high that no sane business would want to hold data that is essentially toxic waste.<p>Without that, we are quickly spiraling into the dystopia where privacy is gone, and when the wrong person gets access to the data, entire populations are threatened.
4/15/2026, 1:40:47 AM
by: jimmar
I followed the shooting at Brown University last year very closely. Brown's leadership was heavily criticized for having camera blind spots and not being able to track the shooter's exact movements through campus. I can understand why people with stewardship over the safety of their students/customers/constituents would make decisions to err on the side of tracking. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I understand it.
4/15/2026, 1:32:56 AM
by: jedberg
We need a law that says if you hold any data about a person, they <i>must</i> be notified when anyone accesses it, including law enforcement.<p>I used to work in criminal investigations. I understand how this might make investigation of real crime more difficult. But so does the fact that you need a warrant to enter someone's home, and yet we manage to investigate crime anyway.<p>Your data should be an extension of your home, even if it's held by another company. It should require a warrant <i>and</i> notification. You could even make the notification be 24 hours after the fact. But it should be required.
4/15/2026, 2:14:44 AM
by: himata4113
This is just reiterating same points deflock does including mentioning deflock and images from deflock?<p>Deflock: <a href="https://deflock.org/" rel="nofollow">https://deflock.org/</a><p>Also: <a href="https://haveibeenflocked.com/" rel="nofollow">https://haveibeenflocked.com/</a>
4/15/2026, 1:28:29 AM
by: arcanemachiner
I would never advocate criminal behavior, but I don't understand how these these things aren't destroyed en masse by, like... everyone.
4/15/2026, 1:13:06 AM
by: scarmig
Although I oppose the surveillance state, it's important to understand the motivations and incentives involved in the move toward Flock (and its eventual successors); until those are resolved, governments are going to be implementing Flock style programs with relatively tepid opposition.<p>Police departments are seriously understaffed in many major cities, and officers are much less efficient than they used to be. This has led to the decline of the beat cop, who provided a kind of ambient authority that helped create, both a sense and reality, of public order. People really want the sense (even more than the reality!) of public order; without that, they will jump to faddish solutions that promise it, regardless of the data for or against it.<p>The best counter to Flock is to provide alternatives to it, not just reject it while keeping the status quo going. We need a new, vitalized police culture, that shares mutual trust and engagement with the community.
4/15/2026, 2:19:05 AM
by: khuston
I’m all for mass surveillance of roadways, but I want to see results. Every day I see and hear people breaking laws with their vehicles in ways that make life worse for others around them.
4/15/2026, 1:45:21 AM
by: diogenes_atx
To the list of references provided by this post in the section "Further Reading," I would add the following book:<p>Sarah Brayne (2020) <i>Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing</i>, Oxford University Press<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Predict-Surveil-Discretion-Future-Policing/dp/0190684097" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Predict-Surveil-Discretion-Future-Pol...</a><p>An academic study about the use of surveillance technology at the Los Angeles Police Department, the book documents the LAPD's use of data brokerage firms (e.g., Palantir) that collect and aggregate information from public records and private sources, as well as automatic license plate readers like Flock, and Suspicious Activity Reports generated by police and civilians, which include reports of mundane activities such as using binoculars, drawing diagrams, or taking pictures or "video footage with no apparent aesthetic value." All this data ultimately gets parked in Fusion Center facilities, built in the aftermath of 9/11, where federal, state and local law enforcement agencies collaborate to collect, aggregate, analyze and share information. As the author observes, "The use of data in law enforcement is not new. For almost a century, police have been gathering data, e.g., records of citations, collisions, warrants, incarcerations, sex offender and gang registries, etc. What is new and important about the current age of big data is the role in public policing of private capitalist firms who provide database systems with huge volumes of information about people, not just those in the criminal justice system."
4/15/2026, 1:50:31 AM
by: amazingamazing
I’m curious if there were some consortium of all private businesses with their own surveillance cams deciding to aggregate their footage could it be stopped?
4/15/2026, 1:43:20 AM
by: chris_wot
Michel Foucault's Panopticon is alive and well I see.
4/15/2026, 1:46:31 AM
by: mike_d
The "Take Action" section is missing the most obvious solution. Everyone just goes and takes down a camera. We as a society do not consent to this use of public space and simply have a national "Take out the trash day."<p>There is no way Flock could practically ramp up production or manpower to replace the entire fleet before failing to meet contractual requirements with their customers that keep money flowing in.
4/15/2026, 2:29:39 AM
by: SonOfKyuss
I could be convinced to support public cameras if access to the footage was tightly controlled and only used for solving serious crimes, but government officials and flock themselves have repeatedly shown that they can’t be trusted to use them in a responsible manner. It’s too powerful of a tool to put in the hands of untrustworthy individuals
4/15/2026, 1:57:41 AM