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Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

investigatetv.com

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Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#131

Post by WarmWash »

tekla wrote: post #87
WarmWash wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blantantly making stuff up is a bad look, they were founded as an HOA (private neighborhood) security service. >Flock’s camera and accompanying software is geared towards private neighborhoods and neighborhood associations looking to decrease petty crime.[1] [1] https://www.hypepotamus.com/flock-safety-funding-round-growt...

Doesn't seem to be what their YC Pitch was https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety > From the moment we started Flock Safety, we had an incredibly clear, boldly audacious mission ... We provide a life-or-death product, a mission-critical system for cities

Links from 2017 would be the best way to see what YC invested in, no?

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#132

Post by pwython »

stego-tech wrote: post #68
howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #35

Flock has solved crimes in my state, including a few horrendous violent crimes. We forget US society was configured (imperfectly) to allow families to raise their children in stability and safety, with guardrails around both sides of liberty. Surveillance has a legit role in protecting communities and their families - especially the most vulnerable. Willing to be most of the Flock hate crowd doesn't have kids walking…

Except there was literally just a piece a few days back here on HN where a Mom was arrested for letting her kid walk half a mile alone in a gated community with active security patrols. The guardrails you describe aren’t for child safety so much as adult persecution. Surveillance may help solve some crimes, but its goal isn’t safety of the people surveilled as much as protecting the power of those doing the surveilli…

"This technology can be abused" and "this technology provides no public-safety value" are two entirely different claims.

Saying their ability to solve crimes is "limited to the humans using the tools" isn't much of an argument against the technology. That's true of fingerprints, DNA databases, radios, firearms databases, and virtually every other investigative tool.

A police officer can misuse a DMV database to stalk an ex. That means the officer should be prosecuted and access to the database tightly controlled. It doesn't demonstrate that DMV records have no legitimate investigative purpose. The same reasoning applies to LPRs.

By the way, that mom that was arrested? The kid was 5 years old, and was intentionally sent to a pond.

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#133

Post by morkalork »

driggs wrote: post #90

I love a good taste-of-their-own-medicine story like anyone else, but the headline is false. It seems that this is about a YouTuber stalking a Flock employee's vehicle through traffic for 10-15 minutes, which is why the police were called.

Watching and following everywhere someone drives is stalking? Damn, that's crazy.

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#134

Post by WarmWash »

tekla wrote: post #125
WarmWash wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well until there is solid evidence of them wanting a government mass surveillance apperatus, I'm not gonna grab a pitchfork. I've been on the internet too long to give credence to people who resort to conspiracy when data doesn't fit their desired narrative.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49683853#49684407 Founders own words

From 2017 please...

Unfortunately Google seems to have removed the ability to search only in specific time frames, but the original pitch I'm sure does exist out there.

There are over 350K HOAs in the US, so scaling to just HOAs would still be an undertaking

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#135

Post by Toorkit »

gleezard wrote: post #64
arionhardison wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said this a few days ago and got down voted to hell. It amazes me how HN likes to abdicate YC of all wrong doing or negative outcomes from the companies they fund. YC/PG is also the reason that @sama is where he is.

Wait til you find out what money does to people.

I'd love to have some first hand experience.

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#136

Post by dudefeliciano »

gleezard wrote: post #64
arionhardison wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said this a few days ago and got down voted to hell. It amazes me how HN likes to abdicate YC of all wrong doing or negative outcomes from the companies they fund. YC/PG is also the reason that @sama is where he is.

Wait til you find out what money does to people.

And this is the ideology that got us to where we are now. There is no problem with making money but bending politics/society to your will, and even voting for destructive parties, only for the good of personal interest is abhorrent, antisocial behavior.

One would think that these "geniuses" would understand that living in a society where lower class people do not live with constant existential threats would be a positive for them too...but I guess they find it easier to be hated by everyone and be forced to hire bodyguards, private armies, and live in gated communities and bunkers in fear of getting in touch with the real world.

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#137

Post by theoreticalmal »

driggs wrote: post #90

I love a good taste-of-their-own-medicine story like anyone else, but the headline is false. It seems that this is about a YouTuber stalking a Flock employee's vehicle through traffic for 10-15 minutes, which is why the police were called.

Not illegal, and like all the other comments here, isn’t this exactly what Flock does? But they do it indiscriminately to all vehicles at all times?

Re: Flock worker calls police on reporter filming public camera installation

#138

Post by emsign »

tptacek wrote: post #21

Random people calling 911 on other people filming them is a staple of Youtube; banks, coffee store workers, hairdressers, most especially restaurant managers. I don't know why anyone would expect technicians from Flock to be different. It's worse for the technician in this case, because he really was being followed --- that's not unlawful but it's unnerving. You'd think from the response that this was like the VP/Sal…

Guy is not just a technician, he's a technician working for Flock installing surveillance tech to monitor the public. Wrong life choices have consequences like being filmed being complicit in establishing a surveillance regime.
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