this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2024

71 points (94.9% liked)

Privacy

31990 readers

465 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Flock Surveillance company is expanding (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I recently discovered a company called Flock which apparently is building a massive surveillance network. I came across a reddit post on r/sysadmin where an admin received a request to install a black box device so that law enforcement could access cameras.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safety

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/how-to-pump-the-brakes-on-your-police-departments-use-of-flocks-mass-surveillance-license-plate-readers (disclaimer: I don't support the political views of ACLU)

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1eu0fje/local_police_want_permanent_access_to_our_cameras/

all 31 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (3 children)

(disclaimer: I don't support the political views of ACLU)

The.. political views? As in, where they decided to stop defending Nazis?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What are you dolts arguing about the ACLU comment instead of discussing the actual post?

[–] refalo 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Because in a way, everything is political, to someone, whether you like it or not. Even mentioning the ACLU could imply there is some agenda behind what OP is doing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Engage with the fact that theyre tracking every car on the road in real time. Thats plenty political, so why focus on who's talking about it?

There hasn't been a single other comment other than mine as of writing this thats actually talking about these cameras, you're all just circle jerking about the righteousness of some.organization that isn't even important to the discission.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Toxic.

[+] [email protected] -14 points 3 months ago (5 children)

They are fairly far left. I think freedom and privacy shouldn't he political. That is why I felt the need to leave a disclaimer as there are some political statements in the page.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Do you mean that you don't like the way they prefer to defend individuals against corporations rather than the other way around, or the way they don't help people defend themselves against lawful and reasonable government action?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't mean any of those things. I just want to point out that I don't support the political statements. I am not looking to start a fight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

"I am not looking to start a fight"

That works, sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Everything is political. Unfortunately. BUT I am for ANY org that is in favor of individual rights and freedoms. Haven't looked at the ACLU in a while tho tbf

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Because you make it that. Its political for you but for me, no.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The ACLU isn't to bad but they are definitely liberal. However, the work they do benefits us all. The EFF is a little less left leaning so I tend to prefer articles written by them.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Less left leaning than liberal? Are you suggesting the EFF is conservative?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

No, I am not. I am saying they are a little less politically extreme. They are left leaning but they less public about it. They still have left leaning views but they aren't as vocal about it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

everything is political.

this company pushing invasive surveillance tech upon underserved-and-overpoliced communities like mine is political.
our "representatives" accepting invasive surveillance technology is political.
our "representatives" requesting more invasive surveillance technology is political.
"law enforcement" having (real-time) access to all of these invasive surveillance tech like LPRs & cameras is political.
the core purpose of the police is political.

Also, the political cannot be seperated from the economic.

the ~~bourgeois~~ ~~capitalist~~ corporate media outlets push narratives that spread fear because it draws attention... more eyes/ears means that they can sell commercial time/spots at a higher rate to advertisers.
so, these outlets generate revenue by scaring the shit out of their audience.

our ostensible "representatives" run on & fundraise off of these manufactured narratives.

the police officer associations use this fear to lobby our "representatives" for greater resources (i.e., an increased share of the municipal budget (i.e, less money for everything else) shiny, new toys, more officers, etc.).

the companies supplying invasive surveillance tech make money through sales and/or (future) contracts.

it's all political, and the political is connected to the economic.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I don't think you need to be a minority to be impacted by this tech. That is actually the most terrifying part. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from you are being watched constantly. To be far most peoples cell phones use Google and the cell phone companies can track you somewhat with the modem. The difference is a phone isn't needed for transportation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If you consider the ACLU to be 'far left' I don't think I want you at my kickbacks tbh

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Saying it won't help on Lemmy. When its users see anything related to politics, they will fight. Just ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Theyve been popping up all over my area. My city doesn't have them buy we are surrounded by them on three sides. Its fucking disgusting and terrifying and no one seems to give a shit and just get annoyed that I point them out every time we pass one.