There’s nothing more American than destroying a Flock camera
Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras | TechCrunch
Submitted 3 weeks ago by fubarx@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/americans-are-destroying-flock-surveillance-cameras/
Comments
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I was almost gonna say something about killing nazis, but…
nah, not as american
chloroken@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Killing Nazis is a Soviet thing. In the US, we hire them for important government jobs and fold then into our culture.
fidgeting9658@lemmings.world 3 weeks ago
It’s like American Pie or something.😎
LostSoul8765@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Any RAMnor storage in those things? That solar panel looks useful.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I am tempted to snatch the solar cell for meshtastic nodes. They do look like they are high quality.
XLE@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Could you replace the insides with a node?
CADmonkey@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Looks like a small camera and IR LED’s too.
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Stealing them is felony grand theft.
Vandalizing them is a misdemeanor (typically, check your local laws and also don’t do crimes).
If they were all stolen, it’s an easy PR ‘woe is us, think of the children’ win for Flock.
If there’s a bunch of social media posts that are showing chopped down flock cameras just laying on the side of the road then it has better optics from the point of view of ‘We don’t want country-wide surveillance networks’.
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 3 weeks ago
Couple dead pixels from a particularly bright light might well make them unable to do their plate reading job efficiently. Might make for an interesting study.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Lasers tend not to be good for camera sensors, I’ve heard.
Quexotic@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
I think you’d need pretty high powered lasers to do sufficient damage. I think a class 3 wouldn’t be enough, or so I’ve heard.
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
That might actually work, but it’s probably easier and safer to just use a can of spray paint
etchinghillside@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Something something double tap.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What shall we do with an angle grinder (3x) early in the morning?
RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Cut it in half and push it over (3x) early in the morning?
toiletobserver@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I like your style
alonsohmtz@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Here’s a (non-exhaustive) map of Flock cameras: deflock.org
We can all do our part. Be safe and hide your identity.
Reygle@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You definitely said non-exhaustive, but yes- this is nowhere near accurate for my local area- thinks there are 5 in my town but there are dozens, at least.
LostSoul8765@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If we won’t defend our 4th Amendment rights the sold out politicians sure as hell won’t
SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ive thought about getting a stick with a cardboard sign that says fuck flock and putting it right in front of all the cameras around me that i know of
cranakis@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Here’s a map of them: deflock.org
TommySoda@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Been awhile since I checked out this website and only now just found out there is a new one right next to the office I work at.
officermike@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I could’ve sworn 2 weeks ago there was an article about people breaking into them to steal the wires and components.
RaoulDook@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I hear tell them cameras is full of valuable minerals like gold and copper!
rekabis@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
ANYTHING cloud-connected - your doorbell, your security system, even your f**king post-2006 car - is suspect.
And is highly likely to be actually spying on you.
I’ve been working with computers since 1982, on the Internet since 1988, on the Web since 1992, and in the IT industry since 1997. The proportion of average people who don’t realize how much of their stuff is exposing them, and by how much, is frankly astounding. It’s almost 100% of normies. Even IT people who have no clue is in the majority. And the security on this stuff that tracks you tends to be - except in rare circumstances - absolute dogshite. Sometimes it comes without any security at all, such as all devices sold having admin credentials baked in, or all remote-access credentials being identical and non-user-editable.
This is why almost all of my stuff is hardlined, I have no IoT devices at all, and the wifi for my family’s devices is physically separate from everything else.
Mynameisallen@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Much later into the career than you but honestly in the same boat. I don’t fucking let any of that shit into my house, I don’t use any of the big tech companies software, FOSS on everything I own and I honestly have become so disillusioned with mainline consumer tech because it’s honestly mostly trash imo. The older I get the more I realize I just want a fucking laptop with a decent keyboard, decent screen and good battery life.
TronBronson@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thank god I just purchased my dream car, a 2002 Lexus. Hack that you jabronis
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
PabloSexcrowbar@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
But but but…the internet told me that Americans welcome this with open arms! /s
S4m_S3p1l@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
This is the Mirror’s Edge type rebellion shit I would imagine myself doing when I was a kid as a future hacker. This is fucking sick as.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s every American’s duty as an American to do so.
phutatorius@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Tech crunch indeed.
ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Based.
omnioki@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
hell yeah they are 🤘
MountainMan@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Didn’t some use a 5000MW laser to fry some of them?
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Fucking gangster.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
How did Ring avoid controversy?
calmluck9349@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Cause private citizens are doing it. Not sure why people aren’t hating on them as much yet
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 3 weeks ago
Nooooo! Not property damage noooooooooo!!!
boaratio@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Good.
drascus@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
im glad people are fighting back. i hate these things.
Amoxtli@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
Criminals.
4am@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Yes. Flock are criminals.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
When the government is run by criminals, and the corporations are run by criminals, and the law enforcement are criminal, you think the rest of us should play by the rules?
How is that fair or right?
Formfiller@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes the corporations violating Americans 4th amendment rights are criminals and traitors
ebolapie@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
yeah, standing up for your right to privacy makes you a criminal now. You got it chief.
alonsohmtz@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Some laws were meant to be broken.
Gay sex was seen as a crime, once upon a time. (it still is, in some places)
Wolfram@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
On the wrong platform if you want to suck up to cops and surveillance chief
Amoxtli@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
Don’t call the cops when you need help. Of course, you will.
impdroid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What is this and why did they put them up in the first place
Doctorbllk@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
The article explains every aspect of this.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Who’d have thought that warrant-less mass surveillance that treats every citizen like a potential criminal would eventually hit a tipping point where people began to fight back against it?
SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Along with it incorrectly labeling people as a criminal so cops harass innocent families
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
That’s a feature. not a bug.
The whole point of warrantless mass surveillance where you collect a person’s entire life history from birth to death is to be able to go back through that history at any point they become an inconvenient person, whether because they are protesting or are a whistleblower or anything else that endangers the existing power structures. They can and will use your history to fabricate a “reasonable” narrative to turn you into whatever type of criminal they claim you are.
This is exactly why they’re pushing the “antifa is an organized terrorist organization” so hard.
artyom@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
I watched a video last night. Some guy was banned from a casino. All they had was a blurry surveillance camera photo of him.
The AI tagged some other guy as him. Cops came and arrested him. Said the man’s ID must be fake, or he used a fake ID last time because there’s no way their high-fallutin AI could be wrong! It was >99% certain!
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
What’s funny is someone at flock is likely seeing this as a business opportunity. “With flock+ we will detect downed cameras and send a technician out to replace them instantly. Subscribe now!”
Meanwhile, municipalities are less than thrilled about defending throwing money at something literally no taxpayer wants.
This problem might solve itself really. Let the buisness majors sell the hangman their own nooses.
privatepirate@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Sadly some people do want flock cameras because they think it’s worth it to have a better chance of catching criminals even if our personal liberties get taken away. It’s the age old freedom vs safety discussion.
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Meanwhile, new age Glassholes Flock to their new Meta glasses.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
That’s because they want to be the ones doing the surveilling. There’s loads of disgusting threads you can find online about them discussing ways to disable or hide that their devices are recording so they can surreptitiously record others while claiming they’re not. Most often vulnerable women.