Flock cameras?
- Thread starter raggie33
- Start date
R U a 2x4? = board LOL
1984's Big Brother would have been proud! 
I wish Flock would be honest about what their cameras are actually doing and the capabilities of these types of cameras. They aren't just "license plate readers". That alone would be bad enough. But they also identify people. You can search for people based on tattoos the cameras have seen, NOT in cars. Some of these types of cameras even record Bluetooth/WiFi MAC addresses (hard-coded serial numbers). Some medical devices use Bluetooth as well.
This isn't about tracking license plates, it's about tracking people. There have already been a handful of stories which went public where the data was wrong, or the data was abused, causing nightmare scenarios for the innocent people caught up in it. I read about a gentleman in Colorado whose car's plates keep getting flagged by the Flock cameras as being a stolen car. It's not. He's tried to work with the police, who indeed say his car isn't stolen. But every time he drives past a Flock camera it triggers a stolen car alert to police nearby.
Can these be useful for crime investigation? Sure. It'd also be very helpful for fighting crime if every phone call, text message, e-mail, and web activity were recorded. That doesn't mean it's a good idea. Just take a look at the COVID times. People were encouraged to rat out their neighbors. People were losing their bank accounts in the USA and Canada because they went against The Party's propaganda. Doctors lost licenses. Businesses forced to go bankrupt. All because they dared speak out. The FBI and DOJ targeted parents who disagreed with school boards. Microsoft is tracking every Windows device and there doesn't appear to be a practical way to avoid it other than not using Microsoft products. A man was charged for not unlocking his phone and handing data over to CBP at Atlanta Airport. While I think he's a disgusting individual, the point still stands. Surveillance is great, as long as you're not the target of it. Folks, all it takes is one election. Then you become the target.
It's a very slippery slope. We've been here before. It was called the DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, aka East Germany, and currently exists in DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. I'd like to point out that both claimed to be Democratic, so much so that they officially named their countries that, but couldn't be any further than the truth. To a lesser extent, the Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі (KGB) still operates as it always has in Belarus. Lukashenko has been "president" for 32 years now.
I strongly encourage everyone to watch the German movie Das Leben der Anderen. It's about the Stasi, told from the perspective of a Stasi employee. Fictional story, however based on real procedures and stories. They went to great lengths to make things accurate.
This isn't about tracking license plates, it's about tracking people. There have already been a handful of stories which went public where the data was wrong, or the data was abused, causing nightmare scenarios for the innocent people caught up in it. I read about a gentleman in Colorado whose car's plates keep getting flagged by the Flock cameras as being a stolen car. It's not. He's tried to work with the police, who indeed say his car isn't stolen. But every time he drives past a Flock camera it triggers a stolen car alert to police nearby.
Can these be useful for crime investigation? Sure. It'd also be very helpful for fighting crime if every phone call, text message, e-mail, and web activity were recorded. That doesn't mean it's a good idea. Just take a look at the COVID times. People were encouraged to rat out their neighbors. People were losing their bank accounts in the USA and Canada because they went against The Party's propaganda. Doctors lost licenses. Businesses forced to go bankrupt. All because they dared speak out. The FBI and DOJ targeted parents who disagreed with school boards. Microsoft is tracking every Windows device and there doesn't appear to be a practical way to avoid it other than not using Microsoft products. A man was charged for not unlocking his phone and handing data over to CBP at Atlanta Airport. While I think he's a disgusting individual, the point still stands. Surveillance is great, as long as you're not the target of it. Folks, all it takes is one election. Then you become the target.
It's a very slippery slope. We've been here before. It was called the DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, aka East Germany, and currently exists in DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea. I'd like to point out that both claimed to be Democratic, so much so that they officially named their countries that, but couldn't be any further than the truth. To a lesser extent, the Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі (KGB) still operates as it always has in Belarus. Lukashenko has been "president" for 32 years now.
I strongly encourage everyone to watch the German movie Das Leben der Anderen. It's about the Stasi, told from the perspective of a Stasi employee. Fictional story, however based on real procedures and stories. They went to great lengths to make things accurate.
Flock cameras monitor people. All people. Had the Soviet Union continued to exist, every block on every street would have Flock cameras on them. It is beyond disgusting. It is obscene! I have no tattoos. One major reason: The Soviets used my dad's tat to positively I.D. him each and every single time. He wasn't a scumbag criminal. He was a citizen who refused to fall in line. In their eyes, guess that made him a criminal. He had one tat. Won't go into the details here. Some of you already know the story of how and when he got it.
No one is making a positive I.D. off of one of my tats, because I don't have any!
No one is making a positive I.D. off of one of my tats, because I don't have any!
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remember when pokemon Go came out and the conspiracy theorists were ridiculed for being tin foily?
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Ai is more dangerous.
I don't have a problem with AI... EXCEPT, it's a tool. Like any tool, the skill of the user depends whether it's useful or dangerous. From an IBM internal report cautioned in 1979, “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision."
My office ran its own private AI server farm starting in late 2022/early 2023. I was the gatekeeper between it and the users. I didn't want my users becoming dependent or lazy, as I know some of them would. I'd intentionally have it throw some wrong info in there to make sure they read it. If I didn't get a correction report back, I knew the user didn't read it.
My office ran its own private AI server farm starting in late 2022/early 2023. I was the gatekeeper between it and the users. I didn't want my users becoming dependent or lazy, as I know some of them would. I'd intentionally have it throw some wrong info in there to make sure they read it. If I didn't get a correction report back, I knew the user didn't read it.
^and none of any revelation even from the 70s has clued us in.
"I don't have a problem with Ai ...." it has led us to now. I'm not against using it. I'm against its use undisclosed. I have had fun mucking around with Ai when I know the answer.
There was a day when newspapers were considered evil. ......oh wait
"I don't have a problem with Ai ...." it has led us to now. I'm not against using it. I'm against its use undisclosed. I have had fun mucking around with Ai when I know the answer.
There was a day when newspapers were considered evil. ......oh wait
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Person of Interest brings together concerns about public surveillance and AI.
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deepfakes, obscure laws, etc... the thing about espionage is that if they want to find something, they will. Some of these average joes have above average egos, and will go out of their way to ruin peoples' lives for literally no reason, no justifiable reason towards the target... i.e. mistaken identities, boredom, etc. Some people just decide to stay self-entitled and evil.
