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- Hacker News
- I want to buy Cody Morelock a fancy ham sandwich.by dramm
- I love sharing this here. If you want to have some privacy and protection, don't own a car. 3rd party car titling and registration services have existed for this purpose for decades, and once a property owned by that entity/LLC is used by you, you get privacy benefits and are on the hook for use tax and that LLC might have to register the car locally.
I haven't seen evidence that flock and associated entities pierce the corporate veil or obtain your local address information from insurance records.
Obviously pursue at your own risk and with professional consultation. I know someone who does this though and they're happy for the privacy comfort they get.
by mannanj - To me this is strange. In the UK I'm so used to ANPR I just assumed my car is tracked wherever I go. There were a few incidents when the automatic speed cameras first came out, filling them with expanding foam so they exploded etc but even those died out after a while.
- Just because the UK has become a dystopian hellhole with cameras everywhere, Internet censorship, and repeated attempts are ending anonymity online, does not mean that other places should follow suit without resistance.by drnick1
- We have the bill of rights babyby pwillia7
- well hopefully this snowballs and most public facing cameras other than private ones by people and businesses go extinct (state run cameras). We don't need to be recording every citizen's movement "just in case" . Society got along for thousands of years without it, and the potential for ever increasing tendency toward authoritarian regimes points to such surveillance as a terrible mistake in any society striving for a democracy.by EasyMark
- Flock doesn't just sell ALPRs. They bundle it with CCTV, audio sensors, sells to private parties, analyze visual data. That's why they're everywhere. Pointed at pools, walking paths, indoors. In countries where ALPRs are widespread, they're exclusively on roads, because.. they read license plates.by deaux
- I could be wrong, but I don't think the UK has a network of privately owned ANPRs that can create ~complete pictures of people's comings and goings, and that data has effectively zero legal protections whatsoever.
Automated speed cameras are fairly common in the US but are obviously not a surveillance network.
by estearum - Police in the UK are held to a much higher standard, and the culture in the UK is much more tolerant of government control.
I’m also going to guess that there are significant access controls on the systems in the UK that would prevent things like tracking an ex, or cops using ALPR to see if you have visited a healthcare facility that offers abortions among its other services (both real examples).
by dghlsakjg - The article neglected to mention Flock isn't just for ALPR any more. It's been widely reported as collecting cell info, wifi and bluetooth from motorists, which seems far, far outside any "public safety" charade. There's no way to opt out from this data collection for passerby. The accused might even want to claim self defense against an assault on their rights.by imglorp
- I've seen this posted in meme form, but I have yet to see any evidence.by phendrenad2
- He is a hero. Everyone should eliminate Flock spy cameras and similar cameras. They systematically undermine several amendments. All of this government overreach is based on the assumption that people driving cars gave up certain rights automatically, which is simply illogical when no crime has been committed.by shevy-java
- Why would a simple vandalism charge go to a grand jury?by SoftTalker
- Felonies go before a grand jury in Ohio. The article talks about damages in excess of $1,000, which probably means it's a felony charge on that basis.by wl
- Because that's how you get a felony criminal case started in Ohio (and most, if not all, states and any federal felony cases).by alistairSH
- This reads like a newspaper snippet you discover in a cyberpunk video game.by aizk
- 1984 edition
- I got my catalytic converter stolen twice.
I hear Flock cameras have even more valuable materials inside them.
by VikingCoder - Like what? Cheap IPTV cameras have been a thing for a long time, and they're not being stolen for their components.by lbrito
- Plus you are fighting back against the "seeing state" at the same time! Win win!by outside1234
- At least three pounds of copper and no jury will convict you!by BikiniPrince
- >The backlash against Flock has intensified as a growing number of police officers have been accused of or charged with abusing the technology, often to stalk romantic interests. As of Aug. 12, there had been more than 100 cases of abuse by law enforcement, according to the Institute for Justice.
In response, Flock announced new safeguards designed to prevent misuse by police. Critics, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argue that the reforms are largely “cosmetic,” and that warrants should be required for searching license plate reader data.
I'll go further: the gathering of such information should only be allowable by a sworn law enforcement officer acting under a warrant or some other sort of judicial permission during an active investigation.
Flock and Axon are private companies. What's to stop them from selling this license plate data to the police or to other parties to pad their quarterly numbers? Actually, I'd be surprised if they're not already doing this. A friend of mine is in the camera business and was wondering how the hell they're making the money they're making off of local and state government contracts.
by lenerdenator - Flock sucks but I think these kind of conspiracies hurt the argument. You can go look at a number of these contracts since they are part of your local city/municipality.
A typical flock agreement is pretty firm that the data is the customers. Some of it might be used for training. There is opt-in to share with other law enforcement but I have not yet seen anything around commercial use.
I don’t think much padding is necessary. It’s a metal pole with a cheap camera and SIM card. They charge $3-5k a year per camera. The only upfront cost is a local contractor to install the camera, they typically have one that covers a very large region. Huge margins with that alone.
by infecto - It's too late for that. This would have maybe worked 30 years ago, but since the Patriot Act and FISA we have literal secret courts approving >99% of the government's requests for surveillance. The existence of the data is now enough to guarantee its misuse.by consensus1
- > What's to stop them from selling this license plate data to the police or to other parties to pad their quarterly numbers?
Motorola does!
If you're a private repo-man you too can also buy Vigilant Solutions (now Motorola) ALPR cameras to track down deadbeats and take their cars.
Note the list of "Trusted by Fortune 500 data-driven companies" there. All of them are sub-prime lenders and cater to the 24.99% APR marketplace.
Even funnier they now sell the bodycams over through DRN too to the repo guys. https://drndata.com/body-worn-camera/
by kotaKat - Anyone accessing data from this system should have an active case they are assigned to, anything else should be subject to disciplinary action just as with HIPAA. It should have tamper evident audit trails. It should not be on a whim. If emergency access is needed they have to retroactively get reviewed and approved and if it was not in line with any active investigation or assist in an active investigation again it should come under serious scrutiny with actionable consequences.by mc32
- > A friend of mine is in the camera business and was wondering how the hell they're making the money they're making off of local and state government contracts.
The contract awards are public no? Axon et al probably make the majority of their money on service charges for storing, accessing the data rather than on the cameras themselves.
by skinfaxi - > A friend of mine is in the camera business and was wondering how the hell they're making the money they're making off of local and state government contracts.
The Los Angeles Police Department annual budget is over $2 billion. A couple million a year to flock is a drop in the bucket.
by jubilanti