Full transcript
Have Americans finally had it with this
mass surveillance system? That is a
Flock Safety Camera. It's an artificial
intelligence automated license plate
reader. I've reported on Flock before,
and if there's one thing people in the
comments can agree on, it's their hatred
of this. That's because at least 90,000
Flock cameras across 6,000 communities
read over 20 billion plates per month.
All that information then gets uploaded
into a giant shared database, which can
be accessed by law enforcement and
government agencies. And no surprise,
this raises a slew of issues. Like one
Ohio man pulled over accused of stolen
plates, attacked by police dogs, and
jailed because Flock read the seven on
his plates as a two. Or the Colorado
woman accused of stealing a package and
treated as guilty until proven innocent
because Flock caught her driving 20
times in one month. Then there's the
Arkansas couple that had a Flock camera
pointed right at their house, putting
them and their guests under constant
warrantless surveillance. And not to
perpetuate stereotypes, but multiple
cops and police chiefs have accessed
Flock hundreds of times to stalk their
exes and current partners. But don't
worry, you can stop people, too, because
Flock cameras are hackable in under 30
seconds. They can be turned into a
personal spy device, run on an Android
operating system discontinued in 2021,
and didn't even have two-factor
authentication until it recently came
out that they didn't. YouTuber Ben
Jordan even found 51 vulnerabilities
with Flock and said accessing them is so
easy 12-year-olds could do it. We don't
condone the destruction of Flock
cameras, but we're also not surprised
the public has reached their boiling
point. One Virginia man now faces 19
felonies and six misdemeanors for
destroying 13 cameras over 6 months. In
Michigan, police used Flock to catch
this guy who caused about 10 grand in
damage to cameras. An Oregon vandal
{slash} patriots, depending who you ask,
cut down nine Flock cameras, leaving
some with colorfully worded stickers.
Flock cameras in California,
Connecticut, and Illinois have also been
destroyed. So, did Americans take notes
from Britain's Blade Runners?