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Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

haveibeenflocked.com

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Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#151

Post by iso1631 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #143
iso1631 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ANPR cameras which the rest of the world (and apparently America) have had for decades have recently become big news in America, I believe because they're now being used for immigration purposes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number-plate_recogni... I'm not sure why these are so bad but generally everyone loves things like Ring cameras which do the same thing but with people rather than vehicles. I suspect…

Americans (the general public) are a lot more weary of government surveillance than other developed nations. Its one thing that you can get a lot of liberals and conservative to agree on. Unlike ring cameras which people voluntarily install and the government needs a warrant to access, flock cameras are pretty much exclusively for the government to actively monitor citizens without any court oversight.

People install ring cameras which record me walking past. Those cameras then push the data to private companies for processing, and are made available to police on a simple request.

ANPR has been a thing for 30 years. Is America just slow on the uptake? Even then it looks like they've been in use for a long time there.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#152

Post by sigwinch »

ifh-hn wrote: post #115
saint_yossarian wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think so? LOVEINT is indeed a thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOVEINT

I know it's a thing. That was just my reaction reading the OP. First paragraph: reasonable, if ignoring that access it not likely to be unrestricted willy-nilly. Second paragraph: not as reasonable given that Amazon likely comply without issue with us intelligence, and sell the data to third parties, which the police could just buy (similar has been done) to avoid consent or legal obstacles. Third paragraph: out of n…

I think the logic totally follows, if your ex is a cop and you’re thinking of getting a Ring camera.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#153

Post by antiframe »

garciasn wrote: post #131
thih9 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is assuming one travels exclusively by car. Bikes, public transport, or walking are not as easy to track using this system. Then again, these modes of transport are less popular in the US; I guess such a surveillance system is extra effective in the US because of that.

Less popular because it’s not feasible for many. I live in MN. Biking 20mi to work when it’s -10F and in 6” of fresh snow on top of the 12” received so far this season just isn’t something that’s safe to do. Please don’t make it seem like it’s a “popularity” thing; it’s a necessity thing.

I bet the local community plows the roads but not the bike infrastructure, though? I get why, people probably drive more than bike.

But, in Canada, there are local communities that plow bike infrastructure and locals bike in their deep winter.

It's a chicken or egg problem of building infrastructure for users and users demanding infrastructure. It's not some fact of nature that it's impossible. Different communities have different priorities. So, necessity is a bit strong of a word.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#154

Post by sp332 »

tptacek wrote: post #10

Besides the obvious privacy concern: at the very least in my state (Illinois), it's not lawful for public bodies to disclose the license plate numbers read from ALPR cameras, so this data set is necessarily incomplete. But, give it a year or two, and you can replace this whole website with a black background and 72 point white bold text "YES".

In New Hampshire, we banned both public and private ALPRs. You can see on the map that the only ones are at toll booths. Those got explicit exemptions in the law.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#155

Post by pxc »

DivingForGold wrote: post #141

A met a guy once whom drives a PU truck, he lowers the tailgate and places an oversized piece of plywood in the bed as an excuse, he also places an opaque plastic cover over his front lic plate, which has been raised to a $300 fine in Texas, if caught. He now intends to place a series of bright strobe lights around his front plate to "bleach out" the sensors of these spy cameras.

> He now intends to place a series of bright strobe lights around his front plate to "bleach out" the sensors of these spy cameras.

Isn't this a safety hazard?

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#156

Post by jeroenhd »

reactordev wrote: post #87
ifh-hn wrote: post #59

Since the page is currently down and I have no idea what flocked means in the context of license plates, can I assume this is US specific?

https://deflock.me

That website is a bit misleading, their "worldwide" map includes ALL ALPR cameras, not just the ones operated by Flock or for-profit surveillance companies.

The ones on their map near my location are all for automatic license plate recognition to enter parking garages. Not exactly the dystopian nightmare their homepage warned me about.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#157

Post by thih9 »

garciasn wrote: post #131
thih9 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All this is assuming one travels exclusively by car. Bikes, public transport, or walking are not as easy to track using this system. Then again, these modes of transport are less popular in the US; I guess such a surveillance system is extra effective in the US because of that.

Less popular because it’s not feasible for many. I live in MN. Biking 20mi to work when it’s -10F and in 6” of fresh snow on top of the 12” received so far this season just isn’t something that’s safe to do. Please don’t make it seem like it’s a “popularity” thing; it’s a necessity thing.

Finland is a cold country with similar population count and larger area. For national domestic trips, 55% of people there use cars[1]. For MN i only found stats for MN metro area, but I’d expect public transport to be more developed there. The car usage is still 83%[2].

[1]: https://www.traficom.fi/sites/default/files/media/publicatio... page 6

[2]: https://metropolitan-council.github.io/TBI_Household_Synthes... “Driving remains the predominant mode of travel in the region, representing 83% of trips in 2023.”

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#158

Post by supportengineer »

I believe that the full weight of the nations resources should come into play whenever there are missing or abducted people. CIA, NSA, satellites, all of it. I can’t fathom while we don’t do that already. But absent of that, Flock is the next best thing. Mainly because it reduces the friction to get this information in the hands of local law-enforcement officers. I have zero tolerance for crimes against children and fully support capital punishment for such.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#159

Post by tptacek »

svnt wrote: post #109
immibis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but thry're not literally the government and the relevant laws only affect the literal government.

No, there is legal precedent that private companies who perform government services are subject to the same laws.

This is generally not the case.

Re: Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched

#160

Post by dwoldrich »

smackay wrote: post #149
dwoldrich wrote: post #147

Now imagine every other aspect of modern life is enshittified similarly to some extent and all being dialed up. Nothing is sacred, and talk to the contrary is laughable. Government is a scummy grift, every big (money) cause is full of unaudited scammers. I hope you are never passionate about a pet government policy! You can buy local or do it yourself, but all of those are squeezed at the margins by enshittified inpu…

You forgot to mention personal integrity and setting a good example to others.

You make a great point! Setting a good example by being ambitious creates the Pygmalion Effect. The unavoidable contagion of repeated improvement making people hungry for more.

I also find everyone is hungry for kudos. I recommend being very liberal and publicly vocal with genuine kudos if you have them!

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