Live data from Hacker News

At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

stateofsurveillance.org

21–30 of 373 posts

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed cameras? I dont know, as long as people kill people with their vehicles, speed cameras are a tiny evil.

Speed cameras or not, what you described will always happen. I would prefer no evil instead of a tiny evil however.

Likely yea, but with them at least some idiots too stupid to drive get some degree of punishment.

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#22
post #2

"At least 25 cameras have been destroyed". Sounds like a mere drop in the bucket.

The author wants them smashed. The point of the article is to attempt to normalize and provide justification for the behavior, so that more people feel OK doing it.

Good.

Flock cameras appeal to weak communist attitudes, where there is a desire for a "good" authoritarian government that tracks everyone... for "their own good".

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#23

Why smash them when you can harvest them. I’m sure they have components that can be sold.

Better yet, dismantle them without harm and send them back with no return address. Reduces what you can be charged with, prevents Flock from getting insurance benefits, and is all the more frustrating for them to deal with. > I found this on the side of the road and thought you might want it back.

> Better yet, dismantle them without harm and send them back with no return address.

This definitely takes more effort than smashing them does.

> Reduces what you can be charged with,

Does it? How? There's not even a return address to show that a person sent the parts back to Flock instead of just disappearing it.

> prevents Flock from getting insurance benefits

How? The camera doesn't repair itself. It still takes money to turn a pile of camera parts into a working camera on some street corner somewhere.

> and is all the more frustrating for them to deal with.

Is it? Is corporate frustration the goal? (Is corporate frustration even possible?)

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#24
post #2

"At least 25 cameras have been destroyed". Sounds like a mere drop in the bucket.

The author wants them smashed. The point of the article is to attempt to normalize and provide justification for the behavior, so that more people feel OK doing it.

It is against the law, but I would wager it is morally coherent to smash them.

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#27

Why smash them when you can harvest them. I’m sure they have components that can be sold.

Better yet, dismantle them without harm and send them back with no return address. Reduces what you can be charged with, prevents Flock from getting insurance benefits, and is all the more frustrating for them to deal with. > I found this on the side of the road and thought you might want it back.

I'd like to see some software that can be used to connect and hack them (which has been already proven possible), erase any data, then fill their memory with tons and tons of out of place images. Take real traffic images, flip them in different orientations to slow down future training, throw in nonsense, etc. Leaving them in place and making them unreliable is a better solution - they can always put up another camera.

A Little Brother solution: they want data, give them so much bad data the rest of their data becomes worthless. But it only works on a mass scale.

Re: At least 25 Flock cameras have been destroyed in five states since April 2025

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speed cameras or not, what you described will always happen. I would prefer no evil instead of a tiny evil however.

Likely yea, but with them at least some idiots too stupid to drive get some degree of punishment.

I don't think punishment benefits society in any way whatsoever.
Post reply on HN