Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras | TechCrunch
Submitted 1 day ago by fubarx@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/americans-are-destroying-flock-surveillance-cameras/
Comments
FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
XLE@piefed.social 1 day ago
There’s nothing more American than destroying a Flock camera
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
I was almost gonna say something about killing nazis, but…
nah, not as american
chloroken@lemmy.ml 1 day 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 1 day ago
It’s like American Pie or something.😎
LostSoul8765@lemmy.world 1 day ago
rekabis@lemmy.ca 6 hours 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 4 hours 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.
alonsohmtz@feddit.uk 16 hours 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 13 hours 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 10 hours ago
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 day 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’.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Any RAMnor storage in those things? That solar panel looks useful.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I am tempted to snatch the solar cell for meshtastic nodes. They do look like they are high quality.
XLE@piefed.social 1 day ago
Could you replace the insides with a node?
CADmonkey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Looks like a small camera and IR LED’s too.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 7 hours ago
How did Ring avoid controversy?
calmluck9349@infosec.pub 6 hours ago
Cause private citizens are doing it. Not sure why people aren’t hating on them as much yet
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
It’s every American’s duty as an American to do so.
Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If we won’t defend our 4th Amendment rights the sold out politicians sure as hell won’t
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 1 day 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 1 day ago
Lasers tend not to be good for camera sensors, I’ve heard.
Quexotic@infosec.pub 1 day 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 1 day ago
That might actually work, but it’s probably easier and safer to just use a can of spray paint
etchinghillside@reddthat.com 1 day ago
Something something double tap.
Treczoks@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What shall we do with an angle grinder (3x) early in the morning?
RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Cut it in half and push it over (3x) early in the morning?
toiletobserver@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I like your style
SpezCanLigmaBalls@lemmy.world 1 day 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 1 day ago
Here’s a map of them: deflock.org
TommySoda@lemmy.world 1 day 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 1 day ago
communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 12 hours ago
Nooooo! Not property damage noooooooooo!!!
ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Based.
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 1 day 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 1 day ago
I hear tell them cameras is full of valuable minerals like gold and copper!
impdroid@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
What is this and why did they put them up in the first place
Doctorbllk@slrpnk.net 3 hours ago
The article explains every aspect of this.
omnioki@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
hell yeah they are 🤘
Amoxtli@thelemmy.club 1 day ago
Criminals.
4am@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Yes. Flock are criminals.
Wolfram@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
On the wrong platform if you want to suck up to cops and surveillance chief
Amoxtli@thelemmy.club 8 hours ago
Don’t call the cops when you need help. Of course, you will.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 1 day 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?
alonsohmtz@feddit.uk 16 hours 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)
Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes the corporations violating Americans 4th amendment rights are criminals and traitors
ebolapie@lemmy.world 1 day ago
yeah, standing up for your right to privacy makes you a criminal now. You got it chief.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day 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 1 day ago
Along with it incorrectly labeling people as a criminal so cops harass innocent families
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago
Meanwhile, new age Glassholes Flock to their new Meta glasses.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day 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.