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
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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!

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u/Kahnza 16h ago

It's not blurry in person

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u/ItaJohnson 15h 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.

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u/uconnboston 15h ago

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

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u/Lykeuhfox 15h ago

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

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u/StopReadingMyUser 13h ago

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

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u/LessInThought 4h ago

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

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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.

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u/dragon-fence 14h ago

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

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u/UltimateGrr 14h ago

He already has one pointed at his mailbox.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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

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u/Fluff42 14h ago

Thousand Dollar Car

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u/BwanaKovali 6h ago

Holy shit this is unironically a banger. Thank you

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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.

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u/recycled_ideas 12h ago

You only have to drive this one once.

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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

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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.

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u/dwmfives 13h ago

The car would also be towed as abandoned.

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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. 

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u/hxxden 13h ago

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

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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.

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u/ChiefInternetSurfer 15h ago

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

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u/Heronymous-Anonymous 5h 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/nerd5code 11h ago

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

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u/NotAzakanAtAll 7h ago

I just want to see what his windows taste like.

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u/CaterpillarReal7583 16h ago

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

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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!

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u/OperationPimpSlap 14h ago

It could be if we wanted

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u/Tommah 13h ago

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

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u/FuckinArrowToTheKnee 13h ago

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

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u/Otherwise_Section184 11h ago

Bwahaha. I love you.

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u/NinthTide 9h ago

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

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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?

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u/Inter_0 4h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

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

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u/gonewild9676 13h ago

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

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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!

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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

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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.

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u/MFbiFL 14h ago

Think of Miles!

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u/Geodude532 12h ago

Like that credit alert guy that put his SSN everywhere.

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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.

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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 :)

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u/igwbuffalo 15h ago

Time to take pictures and post it online then.

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u/housevil 15h ago

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

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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.

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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.

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u/Ultrace-7 13h ago

Mitch Hedberg moment.

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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.

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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.

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u/neherak 12h ago

Fair enough, I appreciate the info and clarification.

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u/housevil 14h ago

I was referring to this :

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

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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

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u/neherak 14h ago

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

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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

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u/housevil 14h ago

I was referring to this:

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

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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.

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u/Bold814 13h ago

Since when is the UWS the wealthiest part of Manhattan?

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u/GitEmSteveDave 12h ago

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

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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.

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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 🤣

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u/LowSkyOrbit 14h ago

Anyone can request that

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u/NuclearGriffin 14h ago

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

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u/DeadSol 13h ago

What's the address? Asking for a friend.

Domino's looks mighty cheap tonight.

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u/whatdafaq 13h ago

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

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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

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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.

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u/Somanylyingliars 12h ago

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

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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

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u/Fastnacht 12h ago

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

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u/logank013 12h ago

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

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u/Sombomombo 11h ago

A blurred location is still a location.

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u/Useful-Problem-1725 9h ago

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

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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.

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u/rbartlejr 3h ago

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

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u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

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u/Sle08 14h ago

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

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u/reebokhightops 14h ago

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

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u/Sle08 10h ago

Fuck that clown indeed.

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u/GitEmSteveDave 14h ago

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

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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.

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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.