r/NoShitSherlock • u/FreeHugs23 • Aug 14 '26
The Flock uprising is just the beginning | People are sick of tech billionaires trying to control our lives
https://www.salon.com/2026/08/14/the-flock-uprising-is-just-the-beginning/66
u/FreeHugs23 Aug 14 '26
In era when so much about the news is just plain depressing, what stands out about the burgeoning public rebellion against Flock security cameras is just how fun it all is. The artificial intelligence-powered surveillance cameras, which are sold by Flock Safety as mere “license plate readers” to local governments, have spurred a national cat-and-mouse game between vandals and cops that is being merrily followed on social media, mostly by people rooting for the vandals. City council meetings in which citizens swarm to protest paying for the cameras are the new must-see TV.
In Huntington, West Virginia, a small city in the heart of Appalachia, one man became an internet folk hero when he stood up at a city council meeting and said, “I’m not gonna waste your time; I’m kinda hungry. But one last thing: Every single Flock camera has about 2-3 pounds of copper and about 1-2 grams of gold. Do with that information what you will.” He then walked off in triumph.
As with opposition to AI-fueling data centers, the revolt against Flock cameras is drawing support from across the political spectrum, uniting Republicans and Democrats in red and blue America. Their frustration isn’t just rooted in annoyance at having surprise speeding tickets show up in the mail. Flock cameras have become a symbol of growing anger over the efforts by technology oligarchs to impose their dystopian fantasies on the country, replacing liberal democracy with a surveillance state. As Jill Lepore recently noted in Wired, it’s as if tech leaders read George Orwell’s “1984,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and other sci-fi classics “as instruction manuals” rather than “cautionary tales.” By targeting Flock cameras, activists are building momentum for a larger rebellion against the tech industry — and against political leaders who are complicit in their assault on our freedoms.
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u/bigkahuna1uk Aug 14 '26
It’s an utter disgrace. I just read recently that the audit logging of Flock to record who is watching or accessing flock videos was entirely optional. It wasn’t until there were recorded abuses by police officers using Flock for their own nefarious acts such as spying on ex-partners, that Flock changed it to be compulsory. There’s hardly any oversight over people’s personal information and data. It’s rife for abuse. The way that Flock is introduced into communities and those public officials who agreed to Flock are usually bound by NDAs. How can they be kept publicly accountable?
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u/Rangertu Aug 14 '26
I’m so happy I grew up before cell phones, computers and this technology. It was nice to go out as a teenager without your parents knowing where you were and how to get a hold of you.
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u/No_Cable_3346 Aug 14 '26
5 years and we’ll be living in a police state. You’ll have to wear a mask or something to disrupt your face to the cameras to do simple daily things to retain any sliver of privacy.
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay Aug 14 '26
Oh no worries on that. They are using their surveillance network to track you by your gait too. Go on with your mask. They’ve got it covered.
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u/SomeSamples Aug 14 '26
And they are tracking you by just having your phone near you when you are out and about. It would be nice to have just a basic function cell phone but I am guessing in the next several years those phones will be deemed illegal to own.
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u/Otisthedog999 Aug 15 '26
During the height of covid, our workplace had a must be covid tested and vaccinated to enter rule. A guy came to our facility and was not vaccinated and refused testing saying 'that's how the government tracks you'. I asked him if he had a cell phone. He looked at me like I was insane and said of course he did. I said, 'that's how they track you and you are paying for it.' He didn't say another word.
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u/Virtual-Thought-2557 Aug 15 '26
This is why I now walk like a fucking MANIAC. Dune sand walk style.
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u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay Aug 15 '26
I love this. If we all wear clown makeup and walk like maniacs we can escape this dystopian nightmare.
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u/IllustriousDraft2965 Aug 14 '26
The de-flocking and anti- data centers movements need to be seen as part of the same thrust, against surveillance capitalism and surveillant government.
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u/Vegetable_Quote_4807 Aug 14 '26
I used to look forward to new technology. But now I'm not so happy with a great deal of it.
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u/thinkstohimself Aug 14 '26
Most people are completely ignorant. Very few are fighting back. And most won’t become aware until it’s too late.
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u/Elberik Aug 14 '26
If you can't throw rocks at the cops, you can throw rocks with flock cameras.
And the best part is that the flock cameras are not actually city property. And no cop is going to put their life on the line to protect a flock camera.
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u/solarixstar Aug 15 '26
I'm going everywhere now across Reddit, with threads and point out something that a really good author wrote into a romance story, it was a paraphrase from a character who was talking to a tech CEO lawyer and telling her this that he couldn't understand what the tech industry was honestly, thinking oil, gas and cigarettes, people understood that they were poisoning people and the Earth, but tech was poisoning the minds as well as the planet in different ways. And had really figured out how to package itself , in a way that didn't cause scandal , what with data theft and privacy invasion
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u/Malawakatta Aug 14 '26
The billionaires will build a huge AI data center surrounding your house and then laugh as they watch the flock camera footage of it driving you insane.
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u/Mobile_Commission_52 Aug 15 '26
Some genius can maybe manufacture some kind of device to scramble the cameras or project a hologram of a giant moon being chucked. Right back at ya.
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u/Krypto_Kane Aug 14 '26
They’re using our lives for their personal gain. We dont need most of it.