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Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras
- hackernews682 8mo agogood.
- Terr_ 8mo ago> broken and smashed Flock cameras I wonder how resistant the cameras are to strong handheld lasers. I suppose they could harden them against some common wavelengths with filters, but that'd affect the image clarity in normal use.
- 0_____0 8mo agoI have worked with watt class lasers before and I implore you not to do this. Even if it's tempting. Most places where there are surveillance cameras are places where there are also people, and unless you want to hand out OD5 goggles to everyone in eyeshot... a pellet gun would be safer.
- Terr_ 8mo ago> Most places where there are surveillance cameras are places where there are also people I assume you're concerned about reflections from the camera lens or housing? In my mind, the archetypal camera is mounted on a nice tall pole, silhouetted against open sky, and painted matte black. > watt class lasers Surely those would be excessive for someone attacking the sensor, unless they want to remotely sear some graffiti by burning away paint.
- hinkley 8mo agoHitting the lens at an oblique angle won’t fry the sensor though? You have to get close to the cone of visibility which is then within the bloom area.
- hinkley 8mo agoMy friend in college did an internship on high frequency, short pulse beams (I wanna say violet and picosecond? Which I still think was exotic at the time). Most of his work was dealing with and accounting for reflections that left the machine. If you have a prism that’s sending 95% of the light where you want it to go, when it’s a multi watt laser you can’t just let that 5% go wherever it wants. You will blind someone. So his job was getting black bodies in all the right spots to absorb the lost light. His safety goggles looked like even more expensive Oakleys of that era and they were (much more expensive).
- cyberax 8mo agoThe amount of safety when working with lasers is ridiculous. And for a good reason, you can get permanent eye damage faster than the blink of an eye. Please, don't play with lasers. At all. Even supposedly "safe" lasers can output far more light than expected.
- hinkley 8mo agoAnother friend’s favorite saying is, “do not look into laser with remaining eye.”
- flowerthoughts 8mo agoNot to mention the ones that have peaks in invisible parts of the spectrum.
- palata 8mo agoUnrelated, but I really want to take the opportunity: How can one know what is dangerous for the eyes or not? Years ago I got an "IR illuminator" (from aliexpress, probably) that I wanted to use with my raspberrypi NoIR camera, for fun. Say filming myself during the night to see how much I move while sleeping, or making my own wildlife camera trap. But I was scared that it could be dangerous and never used it (I tested it in an empty room, but that was it). Is there a safe way for a hobbyist to get an IR illuminator and be sure that I won't make somebody blind with it?
- elictronic 8mo agoBuy from a reputable dealer. I don’t buy batteries, lasers, or items I ingest from locations lacking any repercussions.
- duskwuff 8mo agoIR illuminators are not lasers. Their purpose is to cast light across a broad area, not to deliver it all to one point. They should not be harmful to vision.
- 0_____0 8mo agoIs it just a bunch of IR LEDs? Surface mount or through-hole? What's the module power rating? What's the power supply power rating? Are there any secondary optics like lenses over the LEDs? Is there a diffuser of some kind? If it's a cluster of garden variety through-hole LEDs with domed tops (like you would see on a TV remote), they're necessarily low power on account of having poor thermal performance. Another way to tell is if nothing gets warm at all. It's pretty hard to hurt someone with an emitter that both doesn't have a focusing optic and doesn't get warm. Let me be clear - you're still responsible for verifying the safety of your stuff, and I am in no way assuring you that the device you have is benign, because I can't do that without inspecting it directly.
- palata 8mo agoYeah, let's say something like this: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-IR-Infrared-Illuminator-Night-Viewing-With/ https://www.instructables.com/DIY-IR-Infrared-Illuminator-Ni... > Let me be clear - you're still responsible for verifying the safety of your stuff Obviously yeah. I was just wondering if there were known rules like "these wavelengths under this power are fine for humans and wildlife, even if they put the LEDs right in front of their eyes", and also if you have an array of such IR LEDs, how they cumulate. And curious about things like: if I don't see it, can it hurt my retina? I probably will never do it: I wouldn't want to blind a fox just because I wanted to make my own wildlife camera :).
- kotaKat 8mo agoLast I recall they’re just a crappy 5 megapixel Arducam camera module based on teardowns. https://www.cehrp.org/dissection-of-flock-safety-camera/ https://www.cehrp.org/dissection-of-flock-safety-camera/ https://www.arducam.com/product/arducam-ov5647-noir-camera-board-w-motorized-ir-cut-filter-m12x0-5-mount-ls1820-lens-raspberry-pi/ https://www.arducam.com/product/arducam-ov5647-noir-camera-b...
- daemonologist 8mo agoLol that's almost literally the cheapest possible option. You can get these for $3-4 (on a board and with a mipi cable and everything) from China - I have a dozen in a box that I bought to test out a camera array idea before shelling out for nicer sensors.
- kotaKat 8mo agoThe best part is seeing someone tear a Flock camera apart, see the camera, and immediately go slap it on their 3D printer and hook it into their Pi and just have it work out of the box ;)
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoMaybe pick up one [1] and experiment with it. If I had some spare change I would love to grab one just to hack it. [1] https://www.ebay.com/itm/297938376075 https://www.ebay.com/itm/297938376075
- nancyminusone 8mo agoDo not do this.
- tclancy 8mo agoComments in the sub-$200 LiDAR thread suggested those would play merry havoc with a camera too.
- Aurornis 8mo agoPlease do not encourage people to go shining bright lasers at small targets from long distances right next to busy roads. This is a nerd fantasy thing, but it's a really bad idea. It's hard to hit a tiny lens from a distance and it only takes one slip of the hand to shine it straight into traffic or someone walking down the sidewalk.
- neilv 8mo agoRecent: Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras (bloodinthemachine.com) | 456 points by latexr 2 days ago | 293 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095134
- ToucanLoucan 8mo ago> Merchant reports instances of broken and smashed Flock cameras in La Mesa, California, just weeks after the city council approved the continuation of Flock cameras deployed in the city, despite a clear majority of attendees favoring their shutdown. Well who could've seen that coming.
- LeoPanthera 8mo agoAmerica is really now two Americas. The divide between traditional freedoms and neo-authoritarianism is getting wider. But America is so large that even the minority (just) that believes in freedom is still 167 million people. Even if only a small percentage of that number, from either side of the divide, believes in violent activism, things are going to get worse before they get better.
- josefritzishere 8mo agoThis is the most important comment here. There is a future reckoning to be had between the radical authoritarian fringe and normal Americans who do not want to live in an open air prison. The conflict is completley preventable, and makes a less safe place to live for us all.
- LeoPanthera 8mo agoAmerica is converting into a radical authoritarian state, yes, but they're not a "fringe". They are, by a small margin, the dominant faction in the US. Popular vote counts prove it.
- mrtesthah 8mo agoUnfortunately this country has literacy and education problems, and many voters were plainly ignorant of what they were voting for.
- toomanyrichies 8mo agoThey were literally taking tourist photos in front of the "Alligator Alcatraz" sign. [1][2][3] They knew what they were voting for. The cruelty (and the authoritarianism) is the point. 1. https://theday.com/photo-single/1006536/?mode=team https://theday.com/photo-single/1006536/?mode=team 2. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-pictures-near-the-alligator-alcatraz-sign-at-news-photo/2225854612 https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-pi... 3. https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2025-12-22/attorneys-urge-judge-to-visit-alligator-alcatraz-to-assess-detainees-access-to-lawyers https://www.wusf.org/courts-law/2025-12-22/attorneys-urge-ju...
- bradfitz 8mo agoOh no.
- encom 8mo agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQFF0oqsto https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPQFF0oqsto
- simianparrot 8mo ago[flagged]
- nceqs3 8mo ago[flagged]
- dddgghhbbfblk 8mo agoI'm with you on the AI slop but your complaint on this post just sounds like bootlicking. I would say that anarchist-style direct action against mass surveillance pretty much embodies the classic hacker ethos going back many decades at this point.
- lm28469 8mo ago"lick the boot and accept every degenerate technology without any question or you're AnTiFa" Ok buddy
- simianparrot 8mo agoAnd yet I’m the one getting flagged.
- the__alchemist 8mo agoThis breakdown in rule of law is unfortunate. Ideally, this would be handled by, in order of desirability: - Flock decision-makers and customers holding ethics as a priority, and not taking the actions they are due to sense of duty, community, morals etc - Peer pressure resulting in ostracization of Flock execs and decision makers until they stop the unethical behavior - Governments using legislation and law enforcement to prevent the cameras being used in the way they are Below this, is citizens breaking the law to address the situation, e.g. through this destruction. It is not ideal, but it is necessary when the higher-desirability options are not working.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Waterluvian 8mo ago> It is not ideal, but it is necessary when the higher-desirability options are not working. What has worried me for years is that Americans would not resort to this level. That things are just too comfortable at home to take that brave step into the firing lines of being on the right side of justice but the wrong side of the law. I'm relieved to see more and more Americans causing necessary trouble. I still think that overall, Americans are deeply underreacting to the times. But that only goes as far as to be my opinion. I can't speak for them and I'm not their current king.
- yardie 8mo agoYou won't get to the kind of change you thought you would see until food runs low and the economy stalls. The American Revolution was rare in that it didn't need to happen. The Founders were just being giant assholes (j/k). While the French Revolution just a few decades later was more status quo. A lot of starvation and poverty just pushed the population over the edge.
- t-3 8mo agoThe American and French revolutions originated in the middle classes. The poor are often indifferent to politics because they're focused on survival. The middle classes, who own things they don't want to lose and have free time to aspire for more, are the ones who start revolutions. The poor only came in after being whipped up by the interested parties, and don't necessarily join the revolutionary side.
- drnick1 8mo ago> While some communities are calling on their cities to end their contracts with Flock, others are taking matters into their own hands. This is absolutely the right thing to do. Remove and smash the cellular modem in your car while you are at it.
- Zigurd 8mo agoThe cellular modem is usually on a dedicated fuse. No need for violence unless smashing it would be satisfying.
- butlike 8mo ago[flagged]
- jeffrallen 8mo agoAnd PUNCH NAZIS!
- frumplestlatz 8mo agoPeople gleefully speed running Weimar Germany’s normalization of political violence will never cease to be amazing to me.
- inigyou 7mo ago[dead]
- b65e8bee43c2ed0 8mo agoyeah, go ahead and punch your nearest ICE officer :^)
- ndesaulniers 8mo agoI took a look at the schematics for the two fuse boxes in my 2023 Chevrolet and _could not tell which/if any_ fuse was dedicated to a cellular modem. This was in regards to: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-takes-action-against-general-motors-sharing-drivers-precise-location-driving-behavior-data https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/...
- cboyardee 8mo ago[dead]
- ChrisArchitect 8mo ago[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095134
- linkjuice4all 8mo agoThe easier fix seems like doxxing politicians and embarrassing them until they protect all of their constituents against things like this. We got a small modicum of privacy with the Video Privacy Protection Act [0] after Bork's video rental history was going to be released. [0] https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=video+rental+laws https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=video+r...
- pessimizer 8mo agoThat's not easier, and they don't have shame. They're proud of becoming wealthy.
- linkjuice4all 8mo agoI certainly agree about the lack of shame - but even if you destroyed all of the Flock cameras (and any other public traffic cams) you're still left with no actual protection for your private data. There's more of us then there are of them - so their wealth can't protect them from everything. They can and do buy privacy so there must be something worth protecting that the masses can expose using their same methods.
- dyauspitr 8mo agoMany in this administration are the lowest, least educated parts of their respective societies. They don’t have shame. You cannot shame them because this is literally their only way to make money.
- irl_zebra 8mo agoIf shame were a motivator for this administration or the current grifter class, neither of these things would exist to the current Armageddon-level they currently do. That is to say, completely agree with your take here. There are plenty of government-entity examples of this, but my favorite I've seen recently was a video montage of Elon saying annually, like clockwork, that sully autonomous driving would be here in 2-3 years for the last 12 years or so. If these people had shame, he wouldn't be doing that, as an example.
- steviedotboston 8mo agoThis is really bad for all the reasons that people have mentioned (vigilante "justice" never is a good thing) but people have a misplaced understanding of right and wrong here. Flock cameras have helped solve some major crimes, and people will be glad to have this technology around if they are ever a victim.
- goldfish3 8mo ago>have a misplaced understanding of right and wrong here. "Could I be making wrong assumptions? No I'm a hacker, it must be everyone else who is wrong."
- kstrauser 8mo agoPolice states are great at solving major crimes. And when those are sufficiently solved, to justify their continued existence, they have to solve lesser crimes, repeating until you need enough surveillance to ensure no one's flushing their toilet improperly. Police states are like autoimmune diseases under the hygiene hypothesis. They'll keep ramping up their sensitivity until they're attacking everything, even when it's benign.
- steviedotboston 8mo agoFlock cameras can be helpful in all sorts of crimes. They've been used to solve everything from kidnappings to minor property damage. There obviously isn't a future without crime. This is just a tool to make it easier for police to do their job and deter criminals somewhat, but that is probably marginal. There will always be kidnappings, there will always be property damage. Having technology available to make it easier to solve those crimes seems obvious to me.
- kstrauser 8mo agoYes, I can see how they would be helpful in solving crimes down to minor property damage. I do not want to live in a society where police are watching everything I do in the name of solving minor property damage. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is bullshit. I don't do anything illegal in my bathroom, but I do not wish to have a camera in there, even if it could solve a hypothetical crime.
- NoImmatureAdHom 8mo agoGod Bless America
- nvesp 8mo agoKind of weird all of those people weren't all up in arms about it before the whole ice thing, why would you be mad that they're tracking somebody else but not mad that they have been slurping up data about your movements and habits this whole time, then monetizing said data by selling it to industries like insurance companies etc.
- wonnage 8mo agoYou should be glad they came around instead of lamenting why it didn’t happen earlier
- prh8 8mo agoI don't think OP is glad people came around on it
- JohnMakin 8mo agoHuh? even if you knew and understood the scope of it before (I’d say a vast majority did not and thought they were just red light cameras), it is not very hard to understand that when you see the people in masks without badges snatching your neighbors haphazardly and with specious reasons that you might make a chunk of that majority look at the cameras more skeptically and maybe, just maybe wonder if that technology could be turned against you too. Until recently very few people could articulate the real risk this tech posed, now you can literally see it play out (depending where you live)
- rambojohnson 8mo agohow is it weird for you exactly? we didn't have masked gestapo thugs before.
- phil21 8mo agoIt's weird due to the complete lack of second order thinking the majority of people seem to have. You can scream up and down about how building such things is a horrible idea because it can one day be used for evil, and folks will either yawn or call you paranoid or worse. Then the thing actually gets (very lightly) abused/used for something folks don't like and omg it's an emergency no one could have ever predicted! And oh look - it's often times far too late to do a damn thing about it other than surface level 'fixes' that are nothing of the sort. It gets very frustrating living in such a society, but it might simply be the way humans are wired. If it's not in your face and actively a major problem to you in the moment, it's simply not a concern.
- belinder 8mo agoAll they had to do was not air a very expensive superbowl commercial
- palad1n 8mo agoThis is my America. Bravo.
- roger110 8mo agoThese kinds of headlines always read like wishful thinking on the author's part more than a real trend
- reilly3000 8mo agoDoesn’t that just mean Flock makes more money from making replacements?
- mrtesthah 8mo agoI'm sure they'd charge the municipalities and private entities for those replacements one way or another, which ultimately decreases the reliability and value proposition of their product.
- doctorpangloss 8mo agothe damage is showing that Flock, from an objective technology point of view, is really quite much more limited in terms of its efficacy than its sellers are leading the buyers to believe. what good is their platform if it is easily defeated by a guy with a ladder and a hammer?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- nceqs3 8mo agoAll paid for by taxpayers because a few extremists have appointed themselves kings
- lm28469 8mo agoThey're supposed to serve you, not the other way, and you're supposed to start chopping heads off when they abuse the power you gave them.
- phendrenad2 8mo ago"Ah, see, criminals hate Flock cameras. We'll send you a replacement for free, but you should buy two more and point it at that one so you can catch the bastard next time." is how I imagine that goes.
- know-how 8mo ago[dead]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- CodeWriter23 8mo ago[flagged]
- dlev_pika 8mo agoA little direct action a day, keeps the fascists away
- _ink_ 8mo agoWhy were those installed in the first place?
- apparent 8mo agoSpeaking only for areas near where I live, it was in response to a persistent uptick in home invasions. Police can't be everywhere at once, and LPR cameras flag stolen cars and mismatched plates that thieves like to use.
- lm28469 8mo agoHarvest data and let the techno fascist state that is slowly emerging figure out a use case later. For potential scenarios: if you like sci fi you can watch minority report, if you like history you can look at central Europe around 1930
- browsingonly 8mo agoSome are installed by private entities. Home Depot installs Flock cameras in their parking lots. I assume their primary use case is combating organized retail theft rings, as companies like Target spend a great deal on this problem (to include famously having their own accredited crime lab).
- insane_dreamer 7mo agolooking at deflock.org, in our town there are a few in Home Depot and Lowe's parking lots; I guess it's reasonable for a business to have a camera in their parking lot to prevent theft, that's not particularly new; the problem is that Flock has been selling that data for other purposes (ICE). Cameras on the street is another matter altogether. Should not be allowed unless the citizens of the town vote to allow it.
- arbitrary_name 8mo agoCould someone explain how they are doing this, safely and without detection or damage to municipal property?
- Lammy 8mo agoWaow (based based based)
- a456463 8mo agoGood. Flock deserves it. So, do all big tech companies that have been "move fast break things"
- insane_dreamer 7mo agonow it's the public's turn to "move fast break things"
- zwaps 8mo agoit's wild to me that Americand accept a private company plastering their town with surveillance cameras, given you know, everything Additionally, that you draw the line at sharing that juicy data with law enforcement. I mean sure, yeah, but even before that, sharing essentially all your movement data with some company because...?
- doomslayer999 8mo agoWe don't accept that? Our civil liberties have been infringed upon by neoliberals and oligarchs for the last 100+ years, starting with Lincoln with income tax and FDR with social security into the mess we have today.
- matt3210 8mo agoYet everybody is happy giving plaid and therefore palintir there entire financial history and future data
- roger110 8mo agoIt's funny how some banks even disallow you from copy-pasting your routing and account numbers to make it harder to manually set up payments that way
- phendrenad2 8mo agoWhich banks do that?
- roger110 7mo agoI don't remember, but Chase used to until a couple of years ago
- malfist 8mo agoWhataboutism isn't helpful, or relevant.
- b8 8mo agoIf I was someone on the run, then I would just get a fake license plate. They record plates on the interstates as well. Also, they have cameras and presumably can alert of a certain make and model + color car trailer on AI near a last seen area. Only way to bypass that is by swapping cars or getting a really generic popular car.
- freeplay 8mo agoDon't forget about the facial recognition any time you go through a toll booth
- guywithahat 8mo agoMaybe I'm just getting old but I dislike these implicit call to destructive action articles, even if I don't like the surveillance. It is not incumbent upon the public to destroy surveillance cameras, and it's probably a bad sign for society if they are. If you destroy one of these cameras you will probably be arrested, and it will ruin your life. We can elect officials who oppose these cameras, and encouraging people to destroy city property is not the move.
- recursive 8mo agoA lot of the people doing it would probably agree that it's a bad sign that it's necessary. And further that most elections have become a false choice, and aren't effective, as they're so far removed from the changes necessary.
- guywithahat 7mo agoIt’s not necessary though, that’s the point. You can vote and voice your opinion. You may have to compromise on other things but you can simply vote for candidates with better solutions to crime and/or who want to remove the cameras
- mv4 8mo agoWhen it comes to privacy violations, Ring and Nest aren't much better - but at least people have a choice whether or not to install them. Nest: video was recovered from 'residual data located in backend systems' even though there was no active subscription. Ring: employees accessing people's videos. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-says-ring-employees-illegally-surveilled-customers-failed-stop-hackers-taking-control-users https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/... I am an American and I am doing something about it. Co-founded a company that manufactures privacy-centric, on-prem video monitoring devices. No cloud.
- itishappy 8mo agoI support what you're doing, but I'd like to point out that everybody cares about ethics at the start... > We are committed to protecting human privacy and mitigating bias in policing with the development of best-in-class technology rooted in ethical design, which unites civilians and public servants in pursuit of a safer, more equitable society. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety
- mv4 8mo agoI see your point, and I've seen people reevaluate their priorities when presented with a life altering sum of money (or with a court subpoena). And that's one of the reasons we made it architecturally impossible for someone to access the data externally. The user decides how and where to send the data.
- octoberfranklin 8mo agoI think it's nuts how nobody seemed to care about this mass surveillance tool until it fell into the hands of the red party. "Just keep electing the blue party" is not a convincing security posture.
- toephu2 8mo agoLicense plate readers are hardly mass surveillance. Why is no one in democratic countries complaining about mass surveillance? And I mean real cameras (not license plate readers) recording 24/7? I'm talking about UK, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.
- doomslayer999 8mo agoBecause we in america tend to value individual liberties in a way that others don't. And yes of course LPR is mass surveillance. Cars should not even have to be registered.
- toephu2 8mo agoThey shouldn't even have license plates?? That leads to 0 accountibility. Would you like the government driving around in government vehicles doing hit and runs and having zero accountability? Or criminals for that matter?
- doomslayer999 7mo agoWe don't need it. You could say the same about any criminal act, doesn't mean we need to tag everyone with a face id.
- insane_dreamer 7mo agounlike most Asian countries, individual freedom is the foundation on which American society has been built; it's why many people migrated to the US over the past 250 years LPRs are absolutely mass surveillance when used without proper legal restraints the legal restraints are the big difference between regular police, who operate without very specific boundaries to protect individual rights -- and ICE, who can do whatever they want with impunity. That's what separates "police" from "Gestapo".
- WrongOnInternet 8mo agohttps://deflock.org/map https://deflock.org/map provides a crowd sourced map showing the known locations of flock cameras for anyone interested in knowing where Big Brother is watching.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- doomslayer999 8mo agoCar culture in general is an abomination to civil rights. You are tracked by the government, forced to shell out money to predatory insurance companies, and can basically be illegally searched and seized at any point on the roadway. I hope that chinese e-bikes/e-motos will get good enough to where I can use them as my primary form of transport.
- bob1029 8mo agoRing doorbells and ALPRs are a meme compared to what we've already deployed domestically. I've seen the Houston police department fly wide area surveillance aircraft all day over certain parts of town. The capabilities of some of these systems are almost unbelievable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-area_motion_imagery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide-area_motion_imagery I strongly recommend not breaking the law until you've fully considered the omniscient demigod threat model. You never know who is watching and what their capabilities might be.
- burnt-resistor 8mo agoSee also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS https://www.extremetech.com/defense/146909-darpa-shows-off-1-8-gigapixel-surveillance-drone-can-spot-a-terrorist-from-20000-feet https://www.extremetech.com/defense/146909-darpa-shows-off-1... Tech deployed to distant lands will eventually be turned on the empire's own.
- someguyornotidk 8mo agoThis, honestly. I used to get so angry when the US subjected foreigners to treatment that no human with morals would consider, but then I noticed that, without fail, almost every thing the US did to foreigners gets done to US citizens eventually, either by foreign governments or by the US government itself. The only thing that I haven't seen yet are drone killings on US soil, but I suspect that too is only a matter of time. Like it or not, we're all stuck on the same boat. Normalizing the abuse and mistreatment of some parts of the world means normalizing it for everyone.
- burnt-resistor 7mo agoThis. The core of being a decent person is the Golden Rule applying to all people. People who lack empathy are the real monsters.
- atlgator 8mo agoSomeone in the thread linked a teardown showing these use a ~$4 OV5647 Arducam sensor on what's essentially a Raspberry Pi. The real vandalism isn't the people with hammers — it's charging municipalities six figures for a trail camera with a cellular modem and a pitch deck.
- kridsdale1 8mo ago“You can’t put a price on safety”
- extraduder_ire 8mo agoWhere are you finding those sensors for $4? I think the main selling point is that they're set+forget and solar powered, with all the "software magic" happening in the cloud.
- Kirby64 7mo agoThe sensors are very cheap: https://www.arducam.com/arducam-ov5647-standard-raspberry-pi-camera-b0033.html https://www.arducam.com/arducam-ov5647-standard-raspberry-pi... If you want a fancy one with a lens and an IR cut filter it'll run you a grand total of $35: https://www.arducam.com/arducam-ov5647-noir-camera-board-w-motorized-ir-cut-filter-m12x0-5-mount-ls1820-lens-raspberry-pi.html https://www.arducam.com/arducam-ov5647-noir-camera-board-w-m... Sure, the extra stuff like LTE modem, battery, solar panels, casing, etc, costs a whole lot more money, but these things clearly are built cheap. The optics and imaging sensor is a joke compared to real, proper cameras.
- thephyber 8mo agoIt seems to me that throwing bad data into the Flock system is far more effective than breaking a few commodity electronic devices. Figure out how to put an LCD in front of many of the ALPR cameras and play a slideshow of car images of license plates that exist almost exclusively in different geolocations. Make the Flock data so noisy that it becomes useless.
- StayHuman 8mo ago[dead]
- nanobuilds 8mo agoI'm wondering if there are technical solutions to counter this extreme surveillance. I know there are some articles of clothing that kind of mess with some cameras but there must be some other technical ways to mess with the data or make it less usable (and hence avoid physical destruction of property)
- gardnr 8mo agoThere are always technical solutions but the feasibility and challenges of mass adoption generally makes policy more desirable for security and privacy: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2020/02/technologists_vs_pol.html https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2020/02/technologis...
- nice_byte 8mo agoGood.
- vdupras 8mo agoThat's some nice guillotine energy going on here on this unflagged topic. You surprise me, HN.
- nedt 8mo agoThat title is so weird. I thought there are camera that are watching groups of birds. I know the company name is what it is but even more so it would be important to make the title clear. Not the whole world can keep up with all silly things happening in the US and now that flock surveillance can be anything but birds.
- drumttocs8 7mo agoHere's a decent map of Flock installations for those interested in doing field research: https://banishbigbrother.com/flock-camera-map/ https://banishbigbrother.com/flock-camera-map/