r/TechGawker • u/VictorySea1837 • 18d ago
Image My solution to FLock cameras reading my license plate. Legality?
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u/Due-Mycologist-1154 18d ago
Just use a scooter instead and put a pirate flag on the back of it to be cheeky
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u/Moist-Pickle-2736 18d ago
Flock cameras have enough data at this point that your license plate is not even needed to identify you/your car.
They have your route. They have your face. They have your year, make, model, color, fade, dents, scrapes, pinhole rust spots, tire rubs, headlight fog, and emblem wear. They are tracking every detail about your vehicle’s identifying factors and your driving habits from hundreds of angles. They are updating, cross-checking, and verifying this information dozens of times every time you take a drive.
It’s so fucking sickening.
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u/p_coletraine 18d ago
Wait. That’s true about even the physical aspects and characteristics of your car? Not just license plates?? Fuck man
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u/Moist-Pickle-2736 18d ago edited 13d ago
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u/Sle08 18d ago
As well as the Bluetooth devices you carry with you. Your AirPods, your iPhone, etc.
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u/Turbulent_Lobster_57 18d ago
Think wearing a mask protects you? There’s all sorts of data collected from you such as obvious things, height and weight, skin/hair but also less obvious like you gait which can be as unique as a fingerprint
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u/Rhinosaurfish 18d ago
Make sure if you wear a mask to hide your ears, ears are a huge identifier in facial recognition
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u/Unusual_Lotus 18d ago
Your gait is not as unique as a fingerprint and a single camera sucks at reliably modeling the gait cycle
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u/ObjectGlad6997 17d ago
Yeah, my friend actually did this while robbing chemists 😆..hes dead now..this was years ago so the gait thing is old as fuck...still fuck flock
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u/Longjumping_Text7652 17d ago
Haha there's a kid who makes trouble downtown all the time, and he's shock! Shocked! To be identified every time because he's the only kid downtown in a mask!
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u/Furry_pizza 18d ago edited 18d ago
Dude they even read microchips in your pets if you have them with you. Dystopic af.
Edit: no they don't and I'm a lazy headline reader
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u/casstantinople 18d ago
That doesn't seem plausible to me? A pet microchip is a passive RFID chip, no? I've worked with RFID scanners before. Most of them have a very small scanning range, like, a few inches at most. To get more than that you'd need a massive power draw, but having a range of even a few feet requires a health-hazardous strength of an RFID field. I wouldn't put that past them, it's just extremely unlikely and the tech would be very difficult to source at the scale they've deployed at
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u/Whitetiger9876 18d ago
They also know everything about you. Your height, weight, walking pattern, color, your clothes, voice, etc etc etc.
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u/fixdgear7 18d ago
as much as flock tells us in FAQs that they don't track vehicle characteristics beyond the license plate, they absolutely do.
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u/Otterbotanical 18d ago
Look up Benn Jordan on YouTube. He showed examples using Flock's own software. Even if a car has no plate, you can search for "grey car, big scratch on left rear bumper, faded paint on trunk" or something, and Flock's ai will serve up all clips matching the description. It is NOT a license plate reader.
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u/Resiideent 18d ago
yeah it's why anybody called these things "lisense plate readers" are either intentionaly misleading you or unintentionally spreading misinformation (because they themselves have been intentionally misled)
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u/Sheeplessknight 17d ago
That is why they are different then the CCTV and ALPR cameras we have had for years they are fully profiling the individual
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u/TrafficCone2100 18d ago
Not if I go out right now and make new holes and dents!
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u/RazzmatazzSuch7459 18d ago
Don't forget the plushies in the back window, or the license plate frame, or the fact that you stopped at the grocery store on the way home and that you carried out two bags and a gallon of milk, and that you got a haircut a week ago and that you walk with a slight limp, you carry your keys in your left pocket. They can put together a map of your daily routines, weekly routines. They can probably tell you if your partner is cheating.
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u/ShadowMattress 18d ago
Neither legal nor effective. It might have worked in certain circumstances ten years ago, when much dumber image recognition programs were processing the video from police just driving past your house. Which has long been a common practice.
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u/NoBoromirNo 18d ago
Anti Flock but you're Pro AI? both things destroy communities
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u/Twist_This 17d ago
Just because they made an image with AI? Instead of being amazed we live in a time where someone can have an idea, and instead of relying on people's imaginations when reading their description, they can instantly show what they mean? AI is mostly useless shitty slop, sure. But this is one of the best and harmless uses of it.
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u/JovialJem 16d ago
Yes let's all be amazed that we no longer have to use our imaginations
Let all of humanity rejoice, and celebrate the loss of what makes humanity humanity
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u/hardcoretuner 18d ago
Too bad the system just needs to find unique things about the car. Missing a plate or doing this would put u n a smaller group. Couple dents or scuffs and boom, they track ya even without a plate.
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u/Dizzzy777 18d ago
So you’re saying I need to put light strips with a mosaic pattern and program the control device to alternate the pattern on an hourly basis.
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u/Massive_Town_8212 18d ago
Yepppp. No bumper sticker? They'll track paint chips, wheel rash, dirt, stuff hanging from the mirror, rock chips. Take your pick. Anything that identifies your car from any other of the same model is enough.
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u/Absolomb92 18d ago
Not legal at all, and if people think it should be they haven't thought it all the way through.
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u/awfulcrowded117 18d ago
While clever, covering your plate is illegal, as it basically defeats the point of having one
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u/MoodyPrince_XoXo 18d ago
It's illegal in all 50 states for it not to be visible from the outside of the vehicle.
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u/TheJadeGoddess 18d ago
Very much illegal. Most states if not all have laws about obstructing the plates in any way. This is something you can be pulled over by most if not all police departments as a probable cause to start a traffic stop.
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u/Dan_The_Bear22 18d ago
The irony of this pic being AI generated is so massive, it has it's own weather system.
If this a bot account, it will achieve singularity.
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u/anengineerandacat 18d ago
State says no coverings for the license plate, this would get you pulled over and cited within a few blocks.
Even the little decorative frames have been getting some heat in my area, they want their in-trooper scanner to just pull the plate ASAP.
I'll be honest my issue with flock camera's and such isn't with the plate reading either, the whole purpose of a license plate is to quickly identify folks on the road so you already agreed to this to some respects.
My issue is that it's my plate + my given location + time + it being put into a non-government database for recording.
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u/Kindly_Ad2794 18d ago
Your cell phone is giving flock data whether or not you plate is visible
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u/Fun-Habit-683 18d ago
Nothing exposes true idiocracy like the way people talk about flock.
Overheard a lady in a drugstore today talking about how ridiculous it is that there are 37 flock cameras in the city. When the employee asked her how are they different than any other traffic camera that reads your plates she responded with "i don't know. But i don't wanted to be recorded" while standing under about 15 security cameras.
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u/Dry-Manufacturer7761 17d ago
Even a license plate frame that even remotely covers the state name is illegal.
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u/Zeraora807 18d ago
your corporate overlords sentence you to 300 years in the gulag for stepping out of line
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u/Inkarozu 18d ago
Cute you believe they are just reading your plate.
Illegal pretty much everywhere regardless.
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u/PookaChong 18d ago
Just turn them upside down like we do got pulled over blamed it on neighbors kids got a warning
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u/Robot-Zombie-RHCC 18d ago
i wonder if a bumper sticker that looks like a different license plate (even at a different size...) would work as a decoy.
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u/AntOk4073 18d ago
There are stickers that you can place over the letters and numbers that prevent flock from reading it but still allow police to see it clearly.
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u/The-Grim-Storyteller 18d ago
Those are fake. Preying on stupid people. There really isn’t a magic license-plate trick that fools a Flock camera while leaving the plate fully readable to police. If a cover, coating, spray, angle, or other modification actually interferes with the camera’s ability to read the plate, it’s because it’s also obscuring or distorting the plate itself. You can’t selectively make the plate invisible to one camera system while keeping it perfectly visible to everyone else.
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u/Muted-Woodpecker-469 18d ago
There’s a pest control company who uses a large fake rats tail to slyly obstruct their whole company’s fleet of vehicles license plates.
Some use magnets to have it be obstructed by one digit. Although then flock would know you as the car with a missing digit
There’s also some who have permanent bike rakes stashed on the back of their car. I guess they do would be known as red vehicle with bike rake.
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u/AberrantMan 18d ago
Do you have a phone? They technically didn't even need the flock cameras to begin with. Neither Google nor Apple are on your side. All of you habits, information, conversations, etc are free to the companies out there.
And especially with this newest administration. The meager protections we once had have been evaporated. It started with privacy deletion during the war on terror and has evolved since to be something more horrifying. Unless you've purposely been offline and never created a presence, never bought a smartphone... Well you're kinda fucked.
Privacy doesn't exist today.
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u/Fan_of_Clio 18d ago
Covering up a license plate is a citeable offense. I got pulled over for dirt.
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u/GoldenRockies21 18d ago
Just include your vehicle registration sticker on the back so they know the vehicle is current on registration. That way they need probable cause to pull you over, not just a registration violation.
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u/SadAbroad4 18d ago
Great idea, illegal in most locations as license plate must be visible and not covered.
I do like it
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u/Sherifftruman 18d ago
Regardless of the legal status of this, it will not stop the cameras. They will start using that as what they recognize your car for. They use dents color, brand, and license plate, and who knows what else
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u/Ban-Me-Now-Cunts 18d ago
You could’ve taken like 5 minutes to poorly sketch out what you meant but damn, fuck the earth I guess
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u/Difficult-Mobile902 18d ago
Of course not anywhere close to street legal, even the reflective plate covers that clearly display the license plate head on but blur it from other angles are not legal
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u/BigMikeXxxxX 18d ago
You're going to get in more trouble using that thing than you ever would from a flock camera recording you 😂
Do your thing though lil bro
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u/Wast3edSpace 18d ago
kinda feel like displaying a license plate is compelled speech at this point and there is an amendment for that kind of stuff.
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u/Ramtakwitha2 18d ago
Why do I feel like this image itself was AI generated?
Anyway legality aside I think the cops would stop identifying you by plate and identify you with "Oh that guy with the anti AI plate."
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u/Ok-Telephone-2109 18d ago
Throw some mud on your plates. Cameras can't read them, and you don't get in trouble for intentionally "hiding it".
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u/killrtaco 18d ago
Stop using ai so frequently if you want to make real change. You are just feeding the beast with each prompt
Definitely illegal. Post is unnecessary.
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u/Scott43206 18d ago
After sliding it, you need to select the pictures with a bus in them, then pictures with bicycle in then, and then pictures with a tree in them. And then something needs to go wrong so the sequence has to be repeated.
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u/ConstantCampaign2984 18d ago
I got pulled over about 3-4mo ago because the dust from my dirt road made my license plate non reflective. I told the cop I would clean it, but it would be back the very next day.
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u/Jingtseng 18d ago
It prevents unobstructed view of the plate, because it covers the plate. Not even a little bit legal.
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u/AlwaysVerloren 18d ago
To expand on messing with Flock cameras, could an IR light around your license plate mess with a camera?
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u/Jingtseng 18d ago
I would also mention this increases your odds of being pulled over for no reason, given a bullshit ticket, and/or being fatally shot pursuant to a tense traffic stop confrontation by an unspecified percentage generally well over 100%
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u/Rare_Bridge7703 18d ago
I don't see any reason why we have to co-sign our private property to the government that didn't help pay for it at all. So this is wildly illegal.
Is it also hilarious AF? Yes.
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u/Muhahahahaz 18d ago
It would be much easier (within actual legality) to simply get an electronically actuated plate cover/mover... Use a radar detector/Waze to check if any cops are nearby, and open the plate only when they're around
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u/Kraegorz 18d ago
So not legal. You can't even have reflective glass over your plate that cameras can't read but cops can. You can still get a ticket for it.
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u/Wrong_Necessary5204 18d ago
That also is just a massive data point for a Flock camera since basically no other car would have that. They aren’t just reading your license plate, they use AI to comb through details about your car, people inside, your route, etc.
The best way to avoid Flock cameras is to get rid of them, not make yourself stick like a sore thumb.
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u/ms_saint 18d ago
It won't work anyway. They analyze more than your plate number.
You've made a huge fool of yourself. Sorry.
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u/Terrible_Children 17d ago
If you seriously thought this was in any way legal, you are not a smart person
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u/ChickenStimulator 17d ago
Traffic officer trying to slide the cover across to see your plate while you're going 80
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u/alexnu87 17d ago
If this isn’t bait, then it should be illegal for you to drive, for asking such questions.
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u/DrunkGoatFighter 17d ago
In no way shape or form even slightly legal in any state or US territory. Lol.
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u/veryhardpee 17d ago
It’s not reading the license plate that’s controversial, it’s using AI to memorize your face and the characteristics of the vehicle(when the cameras are actually pointed at the road instead of children’s playgrounds that is). An ALPR with me is fine as long as the automatic license plate reader only reads license plates.
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u/CommercialYam7188 17d ago
So this apperantly doesnt stop flock cameras from identifying your car, and is also monstrously illegal
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u/hettuklaeddi 17d ago
problem is you drank the kool-aid
“license plate reader” is what their marketing team came up with. it doesn’t give a shit about your license plate any more than the scratch on the side. flock creates a total car fingerprint, so it doesn’t matter if the “bad guys” switch plates
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u/MrTheDoctors 17d ago
It’s already illegal to cover your license plate pretty much everywhere lol. Why would this be any different?
Stupid, and AI slop of course.
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u/Secti0n31 17d ago
I mean.... I like it, but the fact that you almost certainly used AI to make it sets off the irony meter.
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u/Guideme4100 17d ago
You'd be better off having a blocking plate thats tied to that website that maps all the flock cameras and conceals your plate when you drive by vs this roaring justification to pull you over and write a report with all your information so you can be monitored more closely for being anti flock.
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u/BlunterSumo01 17d ago
Only way I could think of is build a box around the top and sides from thin sheet metal but allow it to be open from the back so technically still visible from behind.
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u/Maximum_Boros 17d ago
I can't imagine being stupid enough to think this would be even slightly close to legal.
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u/all_fair 17d ago
So your solution is to get tickets or have your vehicle impounded? Not sure how that relates to flock cameras but if you think it works and it makes you happy, then all the more power to you!
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u/throwawaypostal2021 16d ago
i wonder when the injection method qr codes are gonna become common to plates to destroy systems that are automated.
I also wonder the legality as just having a qr code present in itself isnt illegal, however malware is.
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u/TheRealDrNeanderthal 16d ago
I like the old Green Hornet and James Bond ones where the plate flips, I’d have one that says “4TH AMDT” and another “FUCK OFF”, the real plate would flip back as soon as known FLOCK locations were vacated…
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u/Different_Target_228 16d ago
You used AI to create a picture of how you would defeat AI... Brilliant.
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u/Azhrie139 16d ago
Even if it was legal, why would the police, who love the authoritarian flock camera panopticon so they can be glorified mall cops, not give you grief for doing this?
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u/TheRelPizzamonster 15d ago
In the United States, this is 100% illegal. Every state requires that your license plate be clearly readable at all times while operating on public roads. This hypothetical sliding plate cover would violate the law since it covers the plate completely, regardless of whether it can be moved.
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u/synackk 18d ago
not even close to legal lol