# the unintended consequence of flock cameras
# Cyb3rMaddy — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chJHEuPTh-k

It seems like everyone in their mothers
are talking about Flock safety cameras
these days. Creators are popping up
everywhere who make content exclusively
about Flock cameras. Before they made
completely unrelated content. If I have
to see one more video of an edge lord
putting a garbage bag over Flock camera,
I may just throw myself off of the
nearest building and then have that
incident captured on a Flock camera. So,
why is surveillance trending now? Why is
there this certain [ __ ] Flock aesthetic
going around? And why are people lying
about getting in legal trouble with
Flock just to sell their AI-generated
merch? Now, surveillance has always been
a thing. Maybe not just as outright as
Flock is. As you can see their physical
hardware cameras around. Before Flock,
you're being surveilled, you just didn't
really notice it because it wasn't in
your face all the time. Now, this
invisible surveillance is bound to piss
off Americans and rightfully so. There
are groups doing actual legitimate good
work such as deflock.me,
which at the time of recording this,
they have over 120,000 license plate
readers, aka LPRs, in their database and
they have their location on a map and
you can see where the nearest Flock
camera is near you. They're doing such
good work
that the CEO of Flock deemed them a
terrorist organization.
And then unfortunately there's
terroristic organizations like deflock
whose primary motivation is chaos. They
are closer to antifa than they are
anything else.
Now, if you get called a terrorist
organization by a private surveillance
company, you know that you are doing
something right. Others see this budding
surveillance infrastructure and want to
create content about it. As the kids
say, for clout. Now, you may be
thinking, "Don't I, as in me, as in
myself, also make surveillance content?
Wouldn't I, me, myself, be chasing this
trend for clout?" And to that I say,
"I'm not running around cos playing as a
Modern Warfare 2 character,
putting trash bags over Flock cameras.
There is a difference between legit
surveillance awareness content
and cos playing as a Call of Duty
character." As you start to see more and
more of these videos on your FYP, you
start to see a trend emerge. Random edge
lord dudes, all black, black mask, black
helmet thing, looking super suspicious
for when they are trying to take down
Flock cameras. Usually, there's some
funk music in the background, super
super edgy,
bassy. Now, usually, these guys are
climbing Flock cameras, putting trash
bags over them, pointing lasers at them,
putting stickers over them, spray
painting them,
what have you. There's even a video of
this one guy who hacked a Flock camera
and was doing kickflips in front of it.
This is the first skate video filmed
with a mass surveillance network.
He actually didn't hack it. He just, I
guess, strapped his iPhone to the Flock
pole and filmed him skating in front of
it, and then edited little tracking
boxes over his face. And the trend of
pointing lasers at Flock cameras does
not even work. It's just for the
aesthetic. You can shine a green 1 mW
laser at a Flock camera till the cows
come home, but it's not going to do any
lasting damage to the sensor. These
creators make these types of videos
because it is trending.
[music]
They want to go viral, as the kids say,
and they want to sell you something.
Insert this doofus right here.
I could go to jail soon and I am not
afraid of that.
A former American Idol contestant turned
influencer.
And he posted on Instagram that he
received a cease and desist letter from
Flock because he was posting
too much anti-Flock content and that if
he didn't stop then they would sue him.
From posting this letter, he has gained
hundreds of thousands of followers
within the process of going through this
whole cease and desist ordeal. This
cease and desist letter was completely
fake. One of the red flags in this cease
and desist letter is that a good friend
of mine
Ben Jordan
has actually seen Flock cease and desist
letters. And these don't come from their
chief legal officer. Apparently, they
hire an external law firm for it. Now,
this letter is signed by the C L O of
Flock, Dan Healey.
[music]
Now, it's not actually signed because he
forged the signature. Also, Healey's
title is listed incorrectly and the
email address in the letter bounces. And
for non-technical people, bounces means
if you send an email and the inbox like
doesn't really exist or if there's
something wrong with it, then you get
the email back.
That means
something's not really working.
And the letter says persecute when they
meant to say prosecute. And Dan Healey
actually confirmed that the letter did
not come from him or from anyone at
Flock. Since that posting, this
influencer has gained roughly 30,000
followers just from posting exclusively
Flock content. On every comment, he uses
an automated comment bot on Instagram.
So, every comment that he receives
he just
auto replies with a bot
and it's basically just like a link to
his stickers that you can buy. Now, more
recently, he is telling his so-called
fans, quote unquote, as he has said in
his reels,
to donate to his potential bail fund.
I've been giving away stickers to my
fans.
May or may not have been encouraging
them to put them on Flock cameras, wink
wink.
Uh but if I do, I'm setting up a bail
fund. You can comment on this video, go
get free [ __ ] Flock stickers, and
furthermore, you can donate to the bail
fund in case I get in court, in case I
go to jail, and need bail, whatever. You
guys can go donate to that.
Not his active bail fund,
just in case he might get arrested, and
to also buy his stickers. In the same
breath, he is also still posting about
his cease and desist letter from Flock.
In one video, he talks about this
letter, and he goes, "After posting this
letter, look at all of these orders that
I have to fill for my stickers. You guys
are awesome, whatever, buy my stickers,
[ __ ] Flock." Apparently, he has reposted
this cease and desist letter 16 separate
times, and has set up this bail fund for
his potential arrest. This video is not
in defense of Flock. I personally
despise Flock with almost every fiber of
my being. What I am saying is that these
trendy, clout chasing
shenanigans de-legitimize the actual
work that goes into protesting this
surveillance infrastructure and the
movement that legit people have created.
Frankly, it makes people who do not like
Flock cameras look stupid. Because of
all of these shenanigans and people cos
playing and pointing lasers and putting
trash bags over cameras.
It just makes the actual movement
look a little less legit. It gives Flock
Safety, and our ops, as the kids say,
more of a reason to discredit this
movement. And I'm not saying we
shouldn't talk about Flock, either.
We should just do it in a productive and
non-scammy way. This is like Flock
mentality. It's easy to make fun of
something when you see all these other
people making fun of the same thing.
When everyone is ganging up against a
company, it is easy to, for lack of
better words, cancel the company. You
need to not have this Flock mentality
and go form actual opinions
on the surveillance infrastructure
that's being built around you. There is
one video of a dude just pointing at a
Flock camera,
basically saying,
"Fuck Peter Thiel."
Just gorilla shook this [ __ ]
and it broke.
[ __ ] you, Peter Thiel.
[ __ ] you.
And I'll bet you a thousand dollars that
he does not even know the name of the
CEO of Flock. All these people
are just doing all of this for the
trend, and for the aesthetic. So,
actually have meaningful, productive
conversations. Actually talk about the
real facts that are happening,
and don't fake any legal letters,
because that could get you in big legal
trouble. Anyway, that's it for this
video. Make sure to like, subscribe,
punch all the buttons in the face, and
I'll see you in the next one.