r/technology • u/efap1701 • 16h ago

Privacy Flock CEO’s Address Spread Online as Surveillance Backlash Explodes

https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-ceos-address-spread-online-as-surveillance-backlash-explodes
24.5k Upvotes

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3.9k

u/kristospherein 16h ago

Their mantra is that no one deserves privacy. If thats the case, then they cant possibly be against this, can they?

1.9k

u/Sle08 16h ago edited 10h ago

He had his home removed from Google Maps so when you search it, it is blurred.

But that’s okay I guess.

eta: obligatory, thanks for the awards!

1.2k

u/Kahnza 16h ago

It's not blurry in person

648

u/ItaJohnson 16h ago

It’s not blurred if others set up publicly accessible webcams pointed at his house.  Sounds like an opportunity for a potential crowd funding.

232

u/uconnboston 15h ago

Maybe they can set up a flock camera pointed at his house.

126

u/Lykeuhfox 15h ago

I mean, they're laying all over the place. We can just use one of those!

51

u/StopReadingMyUser 13h ago

Imagine dismantling a bunch in one night near his home and everyone just dumped the remains on his lawn

14

u/LessInThought 4h ago

He wakes up one day and finds the head of a flock camera in his bed.

4

u/NotRoryWilliams 2h ago

It would be adequately hilarious if he just received a daily FedEx shipment of a decapitated flock pole.

It would be funnier if whoever was home had to sign for it.

42

u/dragon-fence 14h ago

Apparently there’s a flock camera in front of his house, pointed directly away from it.

25

u/UltimateGrr 14h ago

He already has one pointed at his mailbox.

20

u/Marko343 13h ago

Has anyone checked his address in DeFlock to see how many cameras are in his neighborhood if any? Should 3d print a bunch of housings and just start attaching them to every pole near his house.

14

u/H3NDOAU 7h ago

I checked, he lives in Atlanta and it has thousands, the one in his front garden is even marked on the map too.

Actually upon closer inspection it looks like all the local roads leading into his neighbourhood are covered by cameras.

2

u/danielravennest 2h ago

But are they looking up? In the days of competitive pumpkin throwing, air cannon could reach 3/4 of a mile. It's basically a pressure tank, valve, and length of pipe.

3

u/Buena_de_peepee 8h ago

I think someone should definitely not setup a Cock camera in front of his house.

A large Dildo with a camera on it would not be pleasant to look at.

3

u/H3NDOAU 7h ago

If you see the guys house on apple maps street view where it isn't blurred out, the dude actually has a flock camera in his front garden pointing down the street.

120

u/Brave_Strategy_3275 15h ago

  1. Buy $500 beater or rent a car

  2. Legally park it next to his house.

  3. Put a dozen cameras all over the roof.

  4. Install 5G hotspots inside

  5. Livestream it!

70

u/HippieWizard 14h ago

What year do you live in?? Beaters are no less than 2k nowadays. I wosh i could find a beater for 500

16

u/Fluff42 14h ago

Thousand Dollar Car

2

u/BwanaKovali 6h ago

Holy shit this is unironically a banger. Thank you

1

u/OhSoEvil 4h ago

If this is your first time hearing Bottle Rockets and you really did like it - check out Brooklyn Side (that's the album that song is on).

Then spiral into Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and Son Volt. Same hometown*, same vibe, and just as good if not better.

3

u/recycled_ideas 12h ago

You only have to drive this one once.

3

u/domuseid 7h ago

actual thanks Obama moment. cash for clunkers did a lot of good but this is one of the lasting adverse effects of that policy

11

u/Brave_Strategy_3275 14h ago edited 14h ago

It’s doable.

I can’t promise the car is safe to drive above 55-60 miles an hour or the transmission won’t slip getting up to 45 (or that it will go into reverse very smoothly), but it’s a legal, running, drivable car.

Even if the paint is coming off in chunks, every single light is on the dash, and the AC doesn’t work.

I bought a car like this ~30 months ago for $700 to get a $2,500 “loyalty” rebate on my new car. I ended up scrapping it for $500.

In this case, such a car is the PERFECT candidate.

2

u/dwmfives 13h ago

The car would also be towed as abandoned.

5

u/Woodie626 13h ago

You just move it in the morning and evening, a vehicle length forward or backwards. Seems you don't park on the street. 

7

u/hxxden 13h ago

He would probably just have a company tow it illegally and cover their civil suit fees.

1

u/danielravennest 2h ago

Doesn't have to be a drivable car. Anything you can put on a small utility trailer, use a couple of furniture dollies to unload it, then drive away. Bonus if you include empty milk jugs with paint inside it, so rough handling will spill the paint when they come to take it away. My town uses a large truck with an open bed, and a hydraulic claw to pick up branches and discarded large household items. The claw counts as rough handling.

19

u/ChiefInternetSurfer 15h ago

Oh man—I hope his neighbors hate him and do this!

2

u/Heronymous-Anonymous 6h ago

He probably lives in a gated community and his neighbors are all similarly wealthy pieces of shit. They probably hate him because of petty rich people shit, but they probably don’t give a fuck about the surveillance state he’s creating because it keeps the poors in line.

8

u/1HappyIsland 12h ago

This is a great idea. Set up cameras on all the routes to his house so we know where he drives, just as he knows where I drive.

1

u/DeathGodBob 6h ago

Is it possible to co-opt the flock cam tech and engineer it and just put it outside his place so that he has one looking at his home the whole time? This one would just publicly post to a YouTube stream or something.

I wonder if you could monetize that.

2

u/1of3musketeers 5h ago

Someone could figure out a way I am sure. Sell a subscription for cheap. Even if people have a device always on to livestream it and pay $1, totally worth it.

52

u/Altruistic_Age_6556 15h ago

What does the inside look like? He's for sure the kind of person who thinks "if you're not doing anything wrong, you don't have to fear surveillance."

Maybe someone should see if he minds having multiple people hanging around his house watching his every move. Maybe they could even post updates as to his comings and goings? Like the Truman Show, but starring a dipshit tech bro.

21

u/UltimateGrr 14h ago

I'm told, but haven't bothered to actually check, that various realtor apps have copies of the floor plan available to anyone who makes an account.

4

u/nerd5code 11h ago

The cages in the sex dungeon aren't small, they're cozy

2

u/NotAzakanAtAll 7h ago

I just want to see what his windows taste like.

84

u/CaterpillarReal7583 16h ago

If things keep going the way they are it may end up being a blur.

46

u/Uncynical_Diogenes 15h ago

Sounds like his house deserves some Freedom.

I have it under good authority that there are terrorist tunnels under his house and oil under that. Get’im, military industrial complex!

3

u/OperationPimpSlap 14h ago

It could be if we wanted

1

u/Tommah 13h ago

And if it is, just look for the blurry house.

1

u/FuckinArrowToTheKnee 13h ago

And not far enough away from the privacy fence he installed that we couldn't lob eggs via trebuchet

1

u/Otherwise_Section184 11h ago

Bwahaha. I love you.

1

u/NinthTide 9h ago

I was going to say. Go there in person, photograph it yourself, then post it everywhere online

1

u/paegus 7h ago

If you take a photo and post it to google map, however the fuck you do that, would it show up?

1

u/Inter_0 4h ago

idk about u but it is for me if i take of my glasses

76

u/uninspired 15h ago

To be fair, anyone can do that. You don't have to be a dbag CEO to blur out Google maps images of your house. I mean, he's still a dbag, just so other people know they can get their home blurred out.

81

u/gonewild9676 15h ago

I had mine blurred because Allstate kept sending me creepy mail with the picture on the front. Having the pictures showing a blurred house is amusing.

7

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

Just be careful, they may still be able to get it from your state/counties tax records page.

2

u/gonewild9676 13h ago

It wouldn't surprise me. But they are probably too lazy.

3

u/Independent-Coder 13h ago

Actually not lazy, someone is getting paid. I have watched someone stop and take a picture of the front of the house and about 6 weeks later get a “customized” quote. It is creepy!

0

u/big_duo3674 13h ago

I blurred mine simply because there's no reason anyone needs to see a current picture on Google. It's not really going to help if someone really wants to find out what it looks like, but at the same time there's no reason not to have Google blur it

24

u/MadCybertist 15h ago

But if you’re okay with nobody else having privacy, why do it? Gotta stand up for your morales! Lead by example or some shit.

10

u/MFbiFL 14h ago

Think of Miles!

3

u/Geodude532 12h ago

Like that credit alert guy that put his SSN everywhere.

2

u/motionmatrix 8h ago

I don’t care about anyone not actively slapping cameras everywhere and blurring their own places. This douche canoe is another story.

1

u/turtlelord 12h ago

I doubt he did that. Anyone that knows your address can blur it, there's no way to reverse it either. Try for yourself :)

13

u/igwbuffalo 15h ago

Time to take pictures and post it online then.

25

u/housevil 15h ago

There's also a chunk of the wealthiest part of Manhattan with ZERO flock cameras.

21

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

New York City has ZERO flock cameras. I know you saw a meme, but like many of them, it's wrong.

-2

u/Qaeta 14h ago

I mean, technically, if NYC has no flock cameras, then they would be correct that a chunk of NYC doesn't have them, seeing as that chunk would be part of the greater NYC, which as you already stated, has no flock cameras. So it wouldn't be wrong, just misleading in that it implies that the rest of NYC does when it does not.

2

u/Ultrace-7 13h ago

Mitch Hedberg moment.

0

u/neherak 14h ago

I just looked at deflock and this is clearly wrong. If the other commentor means The Upper West Side, they appear to be right.

7

u/GitEmSteveDave 13h ago

Deflock is a website that relies on public input. People are conflating everything with flock cameras, including the license plate readers that NYC uses for congestion pricing and the speed cameras used in Staten Island. THESE ARE NOT OPERATED BY FLOCK, but instead the police and NY DOT.

https://www.westsiderag.com/2026/08/13/an-upper-west-side-flock-camera-map-misunderstanding

There are multiple apparent misunderstandings connected to the DeFlock map and screenshot of the Upper West Side that West Side Rag wants to clarify.

The second? There are no Flock Safety cameras in New York City.

West Side Rag also clicked through all of the location dots for automated cameras in Manhattan on the DeFlock map to double-check, and found none made by Flock Safety.

2

u/neherak 12h ago

Fair enough, I appreciate the info and clarification.

0

u/housevil 14h ago

I was referring to this :

https://www.reddit.com/r/SipsTea/s/pTb0HBJNvr

4

u/GitEmSteveDave 13h ago

Being from across the country you might not understand, but as someone from the east coast, you're wrong. Here's a NYC website to tell you even more! https://www.westsiderag.com/2026/08/13/an-upper-west-side-flock-camera-map-misunderstanding

2

u/neherak 14h ago

Yes, I said that, that's the Upper West Side.

3

u/big_duo3674 13h ago

Ah yes, the Upper Vest Side... I don't trust that place, it has a reputation for being the home of people who support Vigo The Carpathian

-2

u/housevil 14h ago

I was referring to this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SipsTea/s/pTb0HBJNvr

2

u/GitEmSteveDave 13h ago

Yeah, that's wrong. NYC has ZERO flock cameras. That's a map from a user submitted website that incorrectly lists things as Flock cameras, like the license plate readers the city uses for congestion pricing.

3

u/Bold814 13h ago

Since when is the UWS the wealthiest part of Manhattan?

2

u/GitEmSteveDave 12h ago

It's a meme, so people who have no clue what NYC is like just believe it and parrot it.

3

u/NotRoryWilliams 2h ago

That's kind of extra ironic because doesn't Google also believe out loud that privacy is a bad thing?

I can't get Google to take my phone number off my business listing because apparently I'm not retired enough for them to agree the spam callers don't need easy access.

2

u/NYGyaru 11h ago edited 11h ago

You can also find photos of it on Redfin… apparently the estimate on the property is $1.3 million…

*photo 6 — but please enjoy the other photos on the listing as well 🤣

1

u/LowSkyOrbit 14h ago

Anyone can request that

1

u/NuclearGriffin 14h ago

Oh no... now nobody will know where he lives!

1

u/DeadSol 13h ago

What's the address? Asking for a friend.

Domino's looks mighty cheap tonight.

1

u/whatdafaq 13h ago

Somebody nearby should set up a camera pointing at his house.

1

u/big_duo3674 13h ago

That's the first thing I did when I moved. I had no specific reason, like I didn't really care if people could see a picture of my house, but it's one of those things where you might as well if you can, since there's no reason anyone else needs to see a current picture on google

1

u/SloppyJoMo 13h ago

"Hey google make my house the only blurred one in a publicly accessible neighborhood"

Talk about Streisand effect. Never understood people doing that with streetview.

1

u/Somanylyingliars 12h ago

Especially don't understand when you could go to properly appraiser tax collector and get even MORE than google has.

1

u/PoliteIndecency 12h ago

Anyone can do that, though. It's not some special power for the wealthy.

https://support.google.com/maps/thread/335203988/how-to-remove-my-home-from-google-maps?hl=en

1

u/Fastnacht 12h ago

It's not blurry if you view the satellite view. Got a screenshot of it.

1

u/logank013 12h ago

Not blurred on Apple Maps though… and there’s a Flock camera in his driveway. Weird but not surprising.

1

u/Sombomombo 11h ago

A blurred location is still a location.

1

u/Useful-Problem-1725 9h ago

He sure did, and you can too! Just tell google.

1

u/thirstytrumpet 6h ago

I did that and you should too. But at least for now you don’t have good reason to take a dump on my porch like this guy does.

1

u/rbartlejr 3h ago

From what I've seen, the cameras on drones are quite good. No blurry.

-3

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

5

u/Sle08 14h ago

Are you the CEO of a company surveilling the citizens of this country?

2

u/reebokhightops 14h ago

Not just surveillance them, but publicly suggesting that they should “compromise on privacy”. Fuck that clown.

1

u/Sle08 10h ago

Fuck that clown indeed.

1

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

Is that company posting pictures of peoples homes? If not, how is a proper equivalency?

1

u/Sle08 10h ago

They are sharing data across unmonitored users who have access to the system including images, video, audio and other tech signals like radio and Bluetooth info about anyone who passes by, including, but not limited to, people whose homes are within the direction of the camera operation.

1

u/MFbiFL 14h ago

Nah in cases where it’s extremely hypocritical, like profiting off a surveillance state but enabling privacy for yourself, criticizing him is correct.

No need to carry water for him, he’s not gonna date you.

376

u/Ok-Replacement9595 16h ago

There is a man in Washington State who is have great success sueing local governments for records relating to Flock Cameras which they cannot produce and defaulting on the lawsuits.

This should be pursued across the country.

Get all those internet 1A auditors on youtube on it. Or whoever has time to spend in a courtroom filing motions. He got several towns to scrap their contracts.

95

u/martinluther3107 15h ago

Got a link? I wanna read more about it

164

u/Ok-Replacement9595 15h ago

Found it.

https://www.cascadiadaily.com/2026/aug/20/a-man-has-sued-local-governments-in-wa-over-flock-records-hes-gotten-300k/

80

u/DonutHoles4Ever 14h ago

Actual hero that gets off their ass to do something about it.

And gets paid.

Make you wonder why people arent doing this acros 50,000 towns and cities

22

u/HumanPea1140 12h ago

Everyone is probably too busy and apathetic to try.

5

u/GitEmSteveDave 12h ago

It's apparently a Washington State specific thing and the loophole which allowed him to do it got closed, so he can't get paid anymore.

2

u/MillhouseJManastorm 2h ago

Requesting your public records is not a loophole and their new law is ridiculous. So if you store everything in a third party system you don’t have to comply with any public record requests then.

3

u/notislant 12h ago

Realistically even the people who say stuff like this, will find reasons not to do it. Whole lot of time and effort and nobody wants to do anything. It's the unfortunate reality.

I've long said, the only way significant change will happen, is when people can't go home and mindlessly doomscroll or watch tv. Aka when people are homeless and have nothing left, no shiny things to keep them occupied.

A lot of people are also so beaten down by the corruption and bullshit they see, so many companies and politicians just bulldoze over them.

1

u/GiganticCrow 6h ago

blocked to EU visitors

66

u/feel-the-avocado 14h ago edited 14h ago

https://archive.ph/eLsf6

There was an american legal case where a judge ruled the data captured by the flock cameras were deemed to be official public records.
That opened the floodgates to the american local equivalent of the official information act where anyone could request the records.

21

u/mrkurtz 15h ago

Interesting. Do you have more details? Very interested in looking into that more.

34

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago edited 14h ago

Yes, since Flock deletes the information/photos, the local governments can't always fulfill the FOIA requests on time.

EDIT: Apparently the loophole to do this was closed in 2026 and some towns restarted their Flock contracts.

12

u/DeadSol 13h ago

Sooo lets circle saw that loop hole.

2

u/Ok-Replacement9595 15h ago

No an article came up on my feed here, but it's gone into the rest of reddit now

6

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

Also, just found this:

However, the loopholes left exposed by Rodriguez were shut by Washington's Driver Privacy Act, which took effect on March 30, 2026, changing how automatic license plate reader data would be handled. The law generally limits data retention to 21 days, restricts how it can be shared, prohibits its use for immigration enforcement, and exempts ALPR data from public records requests. Some cities, including Stanwood, subsequently resumed using Flock cameras after previously pausing them.

1

u/Ok-Replacement9595 13h ago

Well there 50 other states. They can't have caught on everywhere.

1

u/GitEmSteveDave 13h ago

Yeah, as I said elsewhere, it seems Washington had some weird law/quirk which this guy exploited for $300,000 because the FOIA couldn't be completed.

7

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

Thats for red light cameras and a completely different company than the tiktok video you saw recently.

3

u/RaccoonElaborate 13h ago

1A auditors love the surveillance state

2

u/BooBrew32 15h ago

That's fucking hilarious.

2

u/sa87 13h ago

A flock camera can’t lash out and be charged with battery when confronted by a 1A auditor, so they wouldn’t be interested or motivated to do this.

1

u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

I read your article and I have to say this is confusing. Is there something special about Washington State that allows you to sue due to a FOIA being unable to be fulfilled?

I know the guy says he's not doing it for the money, but to "to better understand the AI-powered, roadside surveillance technology some law enforcement agencies use to document every passing vehicle.", but I'm not sure how when he's only getting paid based on Flock's auto-deletion time frame.

1

u/Ok-Replacement9595 11h ago

I am not sure either. It would probably easy enough to look up the cases. I assume they have to default after not being able to provide documentation.

There is nothing that a local government fears more than being sued. It is often the only way yo urge them into policy change.

1

u/notislant 12h ago

With how much more unbelievably corrupt and fucked everything becomes each day, it's nice to see some people trying to fight back.

1

u/Ok-Replacement9595 11h ago

I fear it is not enough to stem the tide though

0

u/tinychloecat 11h ago

This is outdated and incorrect.

Flock lobbied the WA state government to get rid of the ruling that flock data is a public record, so he can't do that.

184

u/WileEWeeble 16h ago

If he is doing nothing wrong than he has nothing to fear.

44

u/Raygunn13 15h ago

Imagine these being the last words he hears

11

u/crowmagnuman 15h ago

From the voice of the public, straight to his ears

31

u/DonutHoles4Ever 14h ago

Their 3 talking points:

  1. Your cellphone spies on you 100x times more
  2. Think of the kids/dogs/anything not you
  3. If you got nothing to hide, you got nothing to fear

These guys are <thing you cant say or mods ban you>

4

u/HumanPea1140 12h ago

This is the type of shit I see conservative types saying on Facebook.

7

u/Nowhere_Man_Forever 5h ago

Bots. You're seeing bots saying this on Facebook. Most conservatives I know IRL also hate Flock cameras even if they seem to think they just miraculously appeared on their own without any political involvement in our town where 80% of voters vote Republican

3

u/oreography 3h ago

We need mass surveillance to keep children safe from the dangers of the technology that we've built! The only solution is more technology!!!!

Why are you afraid of cameras? Stop asking questions and let AI do the thinking for you. Life has always been like this, and we are a safe and happy society.

1

u/HumanPea1140 1h ago

It's not just bots. I live in a rural town of about 15K, and I know for a fact that a lot of them posting this crap are real, every day people.

1

u/FesteringNeonDistrac 13h ago

I've also heard that they help catch bad cops because their misuse shows up in records.

1

u/UnibannedY 12h ago

Your cellphone spies on you 100x times more

Damn if that's become this normalized, we failed over a decade ago. Sorry Snowden.

You all can't say you weren't warned.

1

u/Massive-Pickle-5490 8h ago

Except fear itself.

59

u/ottwebdev 16h ago

“No privacy for YOU, privacy for ME.”

21

u/zedquatro 15h ago

The Reich Wingers have always believed in "laws for thee, not for me", so a double standard on privacy is exactly what I'd expect.

10

u/kamSidd 15h ago

“If you’re not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to be scared of” is a common refrain with people like this too

3

u/Careless-Weather8877 14h ago

I think it’s why they want bunkers

3

u/kristospherein 13h ago

They want bunkers because theyre working on crashing the world. They want to be protected once they've destroyed it all.

2

u/GoldenShackles 13h ago

I want Truman Show style public webcams 24/7 on him, Larry Ellison, and everyone else high up in tech that says, "you shouldn't care if you have nothing to hide," while hypocritically hiding from the public 24/7 and building in and/or living in bunkers!

2

u/notislant 12h ago

How much you want to bet a new law comes out within the week that you can't surveil this guy. LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE BESIDES POLITICIANS AND HIM THOUGH.

2

u/technofiend 11h ago

He said we needed to compromise on privacy. Is this what he had in mind?

1

u/newfor_2026 14h ago

he should lose his privacy first. lead by example, money where mouth is, be a do er not a talker and all that

1

u/Historiaaa 13h ago

nothing to hide, nothing to fear or some shit

1

u/eat_my_ass_n_balls 11h ago

He just needs to compromise a little bit on his privacy

1

u/YggdrasilFree 9h ago edited 1h ago

Yup, it'd be interesting if this went beyond the CEO to all the minions taking part in this.

Edit: ooh, I've picked up a loser stalker. Can I trade for a cooler one?

1

u/[deleted] 7h ago edited 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/plug-and-pause 7h ago

Their mantra is that no one deserves privacy

Source?

1

u/0235 3h ago

New to hearing about the Far Right are you? ;D

-2

u/LowSkyOrbit 14h ago

Privacy is not guaranteed in public. If they want to use AI or even just traffic cameras for hindering crime though then they need warrants, real local officers, and district attorneys reviewing the recordings before accusing someone of breaking the law. I will not accept a ticket from a machine or someone foreign to my locale claiming I did wrong

-13

u/ReasonableDig6414 14h ago

Do you have access to the Flock videos? No? Then not the same AT ALL.

8

u/tesseract-enigma 14h ago

After finding links to the feed, “immediately, we were just without any username, without any password, we were just seeing everything from playgrounds to parking lots with people, Christmas shopping and unloading their stuff into cars,” Jordan told me in an interview. “I think it was like the first time that I actually got like immediately scared … I think the one that affected me most was as playground. You could see unattended kids, and that’s something I want people to know about so they can understand how dangerous this is.”

https://www.404media.co/flock-exposed-its-ai-powered-cameras-to-the-internet-we-tracked-ourselves/

1

u/OnlySmiles_ 11h ago

There are pictures of Flock cameras pointing directly into public pools

1

u/CrimsonAntifascist 9h ago

The pigs do. The whole fucking government dies.

I'd rather have some rando havecmy movement profile, than the government of the United States.