Valid concern or paranoia?

[Bigjay73]

Not sure what these cameras are, or what their capabilities are.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2084443116850053185

 

[Sheltowee]

They have been shown to be prone to abuse in the wrong hands:

Flock Safety cameras help solve crimes. But who’s watching the watchers?: https://www.investigatetv.com/2026/...ras-help-solve-crimes-whos-watching-watchers/

How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking: https://wapo.st/4wMgiQi

Police Have Reportedly Used License Plate Readers to Stalk Romantic Interests Dozens of Times in Recent Years: https://ij.org/police-have-reported...-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/

 

[INMT]

Makes me uneasy but honestly if your taking your phone, Apple Watch, new car, etc they already know where you are.

 

[jimh406]

Valid concern: police have already tried to arrest innocent people based on the cameras. But, maybe you want to be tracked continuously.

 

[Birdbander]

I accept how incredibly insignificant my existence is so if someone wants to keep track of that, enjoy.

 

[Rack Daniels]

I’m more concerned about the security the company themselves demand. Definitely some shady stuff going on with them. Mass surveillance is real AF.

 

[mdhunter]

If your doing nothing wrong it shouldn’t make your worried. Why the cameras are there ( and everywhere) is what it is. None of them will go away nor will there be less in the future.

Now, stop picking your nose!

 

[Nick87]

I dont like it.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Lowe’s has a contract with flock there in every Lowe’s parking lot in the United States and I know there’s what 10 or 12 around the Scheels in Billings MT

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

 

[Nick87]

 

[Bonasababy]

They have been used for all kinds of illegal things. Here we have one MAGA friendly county who was accessing data without the ok from another county and giving the info to ICE/BP, the US Post office doing the same thing, even a sheriff from another state accessing data from several states away.

 

[Gellar]

Winona Mn police are looking for a person or persons who took the cities flock cameras down.

All of Winona Police Department’s Flock cameras cut down and stolen

Lost cameras valued at about $24,000

www.valleynewslive.com

 

[MTGomer]

They have been used for all kinds of illegal things. Here we have one MAGA friendly county who was accessing data without the ok from another county and giving the info to ICE/BP, the US Post office doing the same thing, even a sheriff from another state accessing data from several states away.

It is interesting to note that some people’s primary objection is when they’re used to surveil the people that have no right to even be here, but when it’s surveiling people that pay for them and belong in society, it’s “nothing to hide, nothing to worry”.

 

[Bonasababy]

It is interesting to note that some people’s primary objection is when they’re used to surveil the people that have no right to even be here, but when it’s surveiling people that pay for them and belong in society, it’s “nothing to hide, nothing to worry”.

Not my take at all. They have a usefull purpose but the risk and how they are abused overpowers any benefit.

Reported safeguards touted by Flock and others are clearly not being used or are not turned on despite assurances they are.

And many immigrants they target have a right to be here. Or only recently had their ongoing, LEGAL path to citizenship revoked not due to any criminal action but because they help fill a quota?

And the 70+ year old lilly white Grandmother I know....wife of a longtime respected business owner... who was harassed and threatened by ICE after getting out of a car in a parking lot in my small town?

 

[Straight Arrow]

"Big Brother is watching you!" Sadly, it's not really a privacy issue but a matter of monitoring and sometimes holding accountable a large disrespectful proportion of the human population feeling free to break minor laws and rules and to behave in a manner which adversely impacts others. (ie; running red lights, exploding tannerite at ranges causing fires, littering the landscape with large garbage articles, excessively speeding with large, jacked-up vehicles and other fast cars, shoplifting, and on and on!)

 

[LCH]

If your doing nothing wrong it shouldn’t make your worried. Why the cameras are there ( and everywhere) is what it is. None of them will go away nor will there be less in the future.

Now, stop picking your nose!

The county north of me actually just banned them. They are uninstalling them now. Unlikely to happen everywhere though.

 

[Wild Bill]

F*ck those things.

I've sent a pile of emails to local and state government officials asking them to ban them.

I'm in no way a conspiracy theorist or buy into garbage, but if people don't think big brother is going to start monitoring folks' carbon allotment, social credit scores, etc., etc., at some point, you've got your head in the sand.

This is a very slippery slope. Mass surveillance like this pisses on the 4th Amendment. I don't buy the "if you're already carrying your phone everywhere" BS. That is a personal choice that I make. Being unwillingly and unnecessarily surveilled is not a personal choice.

I (normally) do not condone uncivil disobedience but I applaud the brave folks dawning ski masks and hacking these things down with sawzalls. True patriots.

 

[Nameless Range]

Not particularly these specific cameras, but modern cameras and what they capable of (ALPR, biometrics, identity recognition, etc) connected to one another and widespread enough - will not only be able provide live and continuous surveillance of individuals, it will pattern them, and for individual instances, allow those surveilling to functionally reverse time in terms of who was where when.

In the same way it was absolutely believable that I Can't Believe It's Not Butter was in fact not butter, the Patriot Act of 2001 was in fact, not patriotic. I remember dismissive conversations at the time of folks saying, "No one is gonna take the time to listen to all your phone calls" as it pertained to that bill's easing of mass dragnets of phone, internet, and financial records. Nowadays AI makes such an objection trivial. It would in fact be very easy and cheap to mine, pattern, and exploit the private phone, internet, and financial behaviors of any individual or set of individuals a person wanted to.

Our physical existences are all but surveilled, and increasingly our minds too. Even what I just wrote is a piece of information I have freely given up, easy for something automated to connect with the real me in meatspace.

 

[BuzzH]

F*ck those things.

I've sent a pile of emails to local and state government officials asking them to ban them.

I'm in no way a conspiracy theorist or buy into garbage, but if people don't think big brother is going to start monitoring folks' carbon allotment, social credit scores, etc., etc., at some point, you've got your head in the sand.

This is a very slippery slope. Mass surveillance like this pisses on the 4th Amendment. I don't buy the "if you're already carrying your phone everywhere" BS. That is a personal choice that I make. Being unwillingly and unnecessarily surveilled is not a personal choice.

I (normally) do not condone uncivil disobedience but I applaud the brave folks dawning ski masks and hacking these things down with sawzalls. True patriots.

Now you know how wildlife must feel about trail cams.