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Across the US, people are dismantling and destroying Flock surveillance cameras. Anger over ICE connections and privacy violations is fueling the sabotage.

⁨1600⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Beep@lemmus.org⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/across-the-us-people-are-dismantling

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Comments

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  • archchan@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Good, fuck this panopticon dystopia shit.

    Also, some guy sliced the entire pole and left a message:

    hahaha get wrecked you surveilling fucks

    Image

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    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They sell battery powered angle grinders at Harbour Freight.

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      • NatakuNox@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Paint ball guns with permanent ink ammunition works too.

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      • JPAKx4@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Pay cash

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      • muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        You can get the same thing cheaper via Craigslist and they’ll have a harder time tracing ownership. A crackhead Hawking stolen hardware store crap is not going to really be as helpful to the surveillance state as they’d like.

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    • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Damn that’s aluminium, not steel. You can do that with an angle grinder, reciprocating saw, or even a mapp gas torch

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    • Fijxu@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      “crime”

      This news man lol

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      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Killing nazis is also a crime. Both currently, and throughout nazi Germany.

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      • sudoer777@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Guess who else also needs to be “vandalized”

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    • FauxLiving@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      hahaha get wrecked ya surveilling fucks

      lol

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    • littlewonder@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      panopticon

      Great word choice.

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      • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It’s quite common to hear we’re living in a digital panopticon. See modern philosophers.

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    • InnerScientist@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Can’t have shit in Detroit.

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    • thuhtoosan@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      lol that’s so cool!

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      looks like he tore it off at the end.

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    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Props to the camera person for showing the message.

      Every small resistance counts ✊

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  • LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    my neighbor hood has one right at the entrance. I make a point of flipping it off every time i pass it. Also, If you were curious how many of these violations of privacy are around you. Here you go- deflock.org/map

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    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      No curiosity here. I just assume I’m being monitored everywhere I go now, though I keep my phone in a faraday bag when I’m not using it, so that at least is something.

      All a person can do now is manage the problem incrementally. I love the idea of people sabotaging doorbell cams though.

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      • r0ertel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This is too defeatist for me. I am upset to see these all over town, but too small minded to do anything about it. I want to start something to pressure community leaders to change, but i worry that i’ll make a lot of noise then drop it like i do with everything. I’d love to join with a group.

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      • Auli@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Ehh then your destroying a persons property. And they might not know how bad they are.

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    • londos@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Everyone should start 3d printing faces of Epstein and take them everywhere they go

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    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Tell hood he should take that thing down!

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    • Auli@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Seems to be an American thing only.

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      • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        China and the UK lead the surveillance world.

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    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Well, that’s actually better than I thought. I wonder if Seattle got rid of them? Home Depot (Pieces of Shit) and an Amazon building that overlooks the interstate seem to be the only ones in Seattle proper.

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  • trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Fun fact: lots of them have exposed cables that should not be cut with a long arm pruning pole found in your grandmother’s shed.

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    • trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Another thing you should never ever do: mix paint and dot3 in a handheld pressurized garden poison sprayer.

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      • hector@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Be aware brake fluid is like antifreeze, it tastes good to animals if they don’t put bad taste in it, and kills them.

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      • elucubra@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Why shouldn’t dot3 mixed with paint? Just so I know why to avoid it.

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      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Why not?

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      • modus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        What would brake fluid do?

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  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Similar to what happened in Hong Kong a few years back when the CCP introduced metal telephone poles chock full of monitoring equipment and cameras.

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    • Butterpaderp@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Offtopic, but it’s sad how all discussion about Hong Kong just slipped away into the void. I think this is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned in almost a year.

      One of my friends just didn’t even remember it happening, he thought I was making it up at first.

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      • jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It’s sad, but I don’t think there’s much else that can be done. I guess it’s all running how the CCP wants it now? (Or are there still protests we just don’t hear about?)

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  • ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Just gonna leave this here for anyone so inclined

    github.com/colonelpanichacks/flock-you

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    • mmmac@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah I’m based in one of the highest density ALPR regions in the country, this would just be going off constantly lol

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  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Fuck centralized surveillance.

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    • ramenshaman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I would like to have a brief discussion with whoever downvoted you.

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      • Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I think it was accidental.

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      • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        That’s the beauty of downvotes: no f-ing context on why people disagree with you or if they even do and are just holding a vendetta from somewhere else, since they aren’t forced to indicate why.

        The account enjoys making a lot of very questionably inconsistent downvotes over their far fewer upvotes and even comments their own suggestion on how to sabotage Flock surveillance cameras in the thread yet doesn’t seem to be an edgelord in their own comments, so who knows. Unlike upvoting, where you presumably agree with a comment, downvoting provides no context as you have no clue why or how much they disagreed with something. Presumably the statement was too simplistic to resonate with their refined tastes, which to avoid the downvote should presumably have been stated with the collection of words they would favor as an argument, if they ever bothered to make it.

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  • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Well, the CEO did openly invite and approve of this. In his own words, Flock cameras aren’t forced on anyone. So the only logical conclusion is to destroy them if so desired.

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  • BanMe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There’s one a block from my house, and three blocks from my work, so they can see me coming and going each direction.

    …BRB

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    • ramenshaman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      There’s two on each of the roads to my favorite local freeway and there’s two in the parking lot of my local hardware store

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  • FuyuhikoDate@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    “Sabotage”

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    • IratePirate@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yeah, it’s a weird way of spelling “liberation”.

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    • XLE@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Pesky German dissidents sabotage military equipment, 1944.

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  • XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I just learned HGTV has a Jan 7 2026 show called çNeighborhood Watch". It’s like America’s Funniest Home Videos, but it’s all doorbell/security cameras. User-submitted, I think. I absolutely refuse to believe this was a casual idea from HGTV as they struggle to maintain viewership. There’s no way this sint funded by one of these companies, meant to continue making everyone comfortable with constant surveillance and increasing the desire to have constant recording devices to catch these one-off comedic moments.

    Tagline: “Everywhere you go, cameras are recording. Your neighbors are watching.”

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  • testaccount372920@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    How would you take such a camera down without being spotted and tracked? Do they not look in all directions?

    Not asking for all the technical details on how to take one down, just curious how so many can be taken down with so few arrests after. I guess it’s a matter of good disguises?

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    • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Leave your phone at home.

      Don’t drive your own car there, and don’t get an uber.

      Ride a scooter, bicycle, or walk.

      Wear a dust mask, headphones (to prevent ear pattern recognition) and safety glasses.

      Wear a high vis vest while working on the camera.

      Wear dark clothing with no logos over the top of something dorky, like a white Ralph Lauren shirt and golf shorts. Ditch the dark clothing if you even sense you might be stopped on the way home.

      Put duct tape on the soles of your shoes to make the shoe prints indistinct.

      Wear gloves, rigger gloves are fine, latex if you have nothing else.

      Work quickly, never run (unless your under disguise is a jogging outfit) and if you see a cop, security, or any person that suspects you, believe in your heart and soul that you haven’t committed a crime. Find a way to delete the act from your memory, become an innocent person. Emotional escalation to cop should be indifference, confusion, irritation, indignant, lawful but otherwise suspicion, and when detained or arrested, silent cooperation. That’s how innocent people behave when suspected or accused of a crime. Once detained, say nothing except your name, age, DOB, address, license number ect and “I don’t know, I need to speak to a lawyer.” Even though they will ask you a thousand questions to try to get you to implicate yourself. There is nothing you can say that will talk you out of cuffs.

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      • brygphilomena@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Specifically say you are invoking your right to silence and specifically say you are invoking your right to council.

        If they continue to pester you after this, it’s a violation of your rights and a lawyer will have more ammunition to defend you.

        If they come back hours later and try talking to you again, you invoke them again. After a significant period of time (whatever the cop decides) they can try again to “see if you’ve changed your mind.”

        But just staying silent is not the same in the courts as invoking your right to remain silent.

        People tend to want to talk and fill silence. You’ll have to control your urges and learn to be comfortable in silence.

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      • Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        One thing missing from the list is disguising your gait/walk. I don’t know how far along they are with reconciling databases about it, but the technology to identify you by the way you walk already exists. I hear adding a pebble in your shoe helps.

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    • scala@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They usually face one direction. And don’t place them to watch each other afaik.

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      • WindyRebel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Well, that might change after this though.

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      • sobchak@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I’ve seen them installed in pairs that watch each other. I also see them in the vicinity of store security cams or intersection cams. I don’t know of one in my area that isn’t in range of another camera.

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    • anon_8675309@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wear appropriate clothing/face covering. Bring paint. Paint lenses. Then dismantle camera.

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    • programmer_belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Balaclava and crowbar combo?

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    • r0ertel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I would wonder if it would be illegal to promote your live of the country by hanging a giant flag directly in the viewing path of the camera. Would you get arrested for being too patriotic?

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    • Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They’re not omnidirectional. You can just walk up from behind it.

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      • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        right, but you do have to approach it. I think the question is more “how are people not being tracked from blocks away”

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  • LemUser@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    They are beginning to disguise them in cones, barrels and small ones on a pole as small as rebar.

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    • in_my_honest_opinion@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes, that’s why we have https://github.com/colonelpanichacks/flock-you

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  • maplesaga@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Just like everyone is quitting facebook, ChatGPT, and all the other things people are boycotting that seem to never have anything happen to them.

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    • null@lemmy.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Already deleted my FB. Instagram is getting close with how many “suggested” posts they cram into my feed that should be just my friends.

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      • matlag@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Not sure the lemmy crowd is representative of the general public trends.

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  • akilou@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    How can I help?

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    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
      1. deflock.org
      2. www.homedepot.com/b/…/N-5yc1vZc98i
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      • ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Also github.com/colonelpanichacks/flock-you

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  • Newsteinleo@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    How would I go about finding a Flock camera?

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    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Deflock.me

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      • Slovene@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        What are the chances that it’s NOT a porn site?

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  • caboose2006@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Benn Jordan has done great videos on this stuff

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  • CADmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    A city near me has installed a device that tracks vehicles based on their tpms (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) sensors.

    All cars after 2008 in the US have TPMS. Inside the tire, integrated with the vale stem, are little pressure sensors with a radio that broadcasts on the 315Mhz band. Each one uses a slightly different frequency so that your vehicle can tell which of the four tires is low.

    So each vehicle in the US made after 2008 has four unique radio signals being broadcast from it, and now there are police departments with equipment that can track those signals, and can assign each car a signature based on the frequencies the sensors are broadcasting on.

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  • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, I was actually thinking about acquiring one myself. I want to dissect it, hook it up to some monitoring equipment/ software, see what I can learn about it… functionality, vulnerability, anything. But I’m also worried about the potential I accidentally show up on a video feed stored somewhere remote. I’ve been checking eBay for them, but honestly… there are several right by my home. We’ll see what happens, in time.

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  • minorkeys@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This behavior from companies is so predictable that I’m perpetually disappointed in my fellow human beings for ever buying this equipment.

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  • cohete@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You most definatly shouldent make a cell phone app that you can put in front of the camera that just cycles through random plates and includes copies of conststution. I wonder if you can do 10 per second. 36000 per hour all day long.

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  • Mangoholic@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Powerfull hand held lasers can damage cameras, by pointing the laser at the lens.

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  • andybytes@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Awsome just like in europe and the UK… nice

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  • njordomir@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I vandalized my own Ring cameras. It didn’t feel right to resell them just so they can spy on me from someone else’s front porch.

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  • Safetyshaft@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Good.

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  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Anyone know of a good form letter / well written petition to request an operator such as an hoa remove a flock camera before resorting tk this?

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  • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Is there a common quadcopter on the market capable of carrying a paintball gun or something else that can splatter lenses?

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  • mrpollo@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Good. We need to teach these pigs a lesson

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  • Earthman_Jim@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Heartwarming.

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  • Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Hell yeah brother

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  • jaschen306@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Would a pellet gun be powerful enough to damage the lens from a distance?

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