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Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

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Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#321

Post by ribosometronome »

dang wrote: post #271
ribosometronome wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that's why this post, with more upvotes than a number of the other ones on the front page, has seemingly vanished from it.

No, it's the other way around. This post is ranked higher on the frontpage than it would be if it weren't YC-related. (In fact, it probably wouldn't be on the frontpage at all in that case.) A core principle is that we moderate less, not more, when YC or a YC-funded startup is part of the story. Many past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

When I made this comment, it was nowhere to be found on my front or second page, I had to navigate back through my browser history to find it.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#322

Post by sneak »

dang wrote: post #271
ribosometronome wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that's why this post, with more upvotes than a number of the other ones on the front page, has seemingly vanished from it.

No, it's the other way around. This post is ranked higher on the frontpage than it would be if it weren't YC-related. (In fact, it probably wouldn't be on the frontpage at all in that case.) A core principle is that we moderate less, not more, when YC or a YC-funded startup is part of the story. Many past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

It’s admirable that this is the policy. It’s sad that YC (as separate from to HN) doesn’t have a better policy about the types of investments they make.

Mass surveillance systems should be a bright line, I think.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#323

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #309
amrocha wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Congratulations on not participating in the legal or political systems of the US, I guess?

Or even visiting the US, to say nothing of living here

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#324

Post by enahs-sf »

eightysixfour wrote: post #13

I don't want these cameras to exist but, if they're going to , might we be better off if they are openly accessible? At the very least, that would make the power they grant more diffuse and people would be more cognizant of their existence and capabilities.

I wonder if such a business model could exist where they were effectively "public" and thus, access was uniformly granted to anyone willing to pay. not sure if this would be net better for society, but an interesting thought.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#325

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

aucisson_masque wrote: post #278
afarah1 wrote: post #175

In Brazil there is a similar problem, but it's not as widely discussed. Here, police investigations revealed that a website sold access for less than $4 to the nation-wide surveillance system, which included live feed of public safety cameras and person search by tax identifier. It was also shown that criminal organizations used it to locate their targets. Access was through the open internet, with leaked credentials…

That definitely wouldn't happen in the states. Corruption only happens in poor countries.

laughs in Ukrainian board of directors

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#326

Post by pixl97 »

fusslo wrote: post #131

I wonder what our founders would think about tools like Flock. From what I understand these systems are legal because there is no expectation of privacy in public. Therefore any time you go in public you cannot expect NOT to be tracked, photographed, and entered into a database (which may now outlive us). I think the argument comes from the 1st amendment. Weaponizing the Bill of Rights (BoR) for the government agains…

>I wonder if Benjamin Franklin would be appalled.

Depends how fast we lost him to porn on the internet

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#327

Post by CPLX »

FireBeyond wrote: post #308
jjwiseman wrote: post #160

The CEO of Flock, Garrett Langley, called Deflock a terrorist group. It's unhinged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-kZGrDz7PU

He has said his goal is for a "world with no crime. Thanks to Flock." and his goal is not aspirational, visionary, but quite literal. He sees false negatives as more problematic than false positives. He has admitted being inspired by Minority Report (to me it's always very telling when someone takes a cautionary tale like this and finds it "inspirational"). It is right to be amazingly concerned.

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#328

Post by hattmall »

superultra wrote: post #306
jjwiseman wrote: post #160

The CEO of Flock, Garrett Langley, called Deflock a terrorist group. It's unhinged. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-kZGrDz7PU

I live in an Atlanta neighborhood where one of the founders lived. A prototype for Flock Camera was designed by three Georgia Tech grads because someone kept breaking into their car (not uncommon in our neighborhood tbh). The trick is that the camera was pointed towards a middle school. Which means they were constantly recording kids without adult consent. Now, years later, Atlanta is the most surveilled city in Nort…

And car break-ins aren't happening any less frequently.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#329

Post by phyzome »

stackedinserter wrote: post #267
phyzome wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fantastic, now I can't report a hit-and-run.

You never have, anyways.

What kind of silly comment is this? In fact I have, and they found the person responsible.

Re: Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves

#330

Post by phyzome »

tptacek wrote: post #231
phyzome wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His other two (much longer) videos go into those details. This one is more of a quick update. Just to give you a sense of the kind of company we're dealing with, the CEO of Flock called the guy who made a Flock camera map an "antifa terrorist". He's unhinged.

Thanks! I know it's a big ask, but can you give me pointers (rough timestamps, whatever). A friend told me to watch this video for the distinctive Flock badness, and the time I spent on that was not rewarded.

Sure, around 33:00 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB0gr7Fh6lY

The other video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9MwZkHiMQ but I don't recall which one goes more into it.

It's also possible I'm just remembering Flock-specific stuff from other sources, and the things he shows in these videos are more general issues with security camera companies (using Flock as the example).

It would be great if this stuff was (also?) published as blog posts so that it could be easily skimmed...

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