‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

Federal judge calls Flock 'indiscriminate mass surveillance'

483 points · 267 comments · sbulaev

  1. joshheitzman · · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, that's what they are. But does that mean are they breaking federal law or unconstitutional? I believe we've been told by the courts repeatedly that we should have no expectation of privacy out in public.
    1. windexh8er · · focus · HN ↗
      From others. Not mass surveillance by a private corporation.

      Otherwise maybe I'll just set up my own cameras in public locations. If the police want the data they can pay per minute of footage. I'll let them search for metadata and tell them if footage matches with no visibility to the footage until after payment. If they search for something and don't purchase but come back for it - it's then increased pricing. If this is all public space and we can all build these systems because there's no expectation of privacy then all is fair in access to public right of way along roads.

      1. kraken_cult · · focus · HN ↗
        If someone set up their own camera and analytics platform outside of politicians and police officers homes and places of work, they would be taken down the next day. It's clearly biased towards people they see as not being able to fight back.
        1. akerl_ · · focus · HN ↗
          Aren't politicians pretty routinely followed by people with cameras doing analysis on all their movements?

          Sure, if you strapped a camera to a light post without permission, I'd expect it to be taken down. The same way I can put a Ring camera on my door but I can't strap one to the traffic sign on my street.

          1. __MatrixMan__ · · focus · HN ↗
            I didn't give flock permission to put cameras all over my traffic infrastructure. Admittedly it jointly belongs to other taxpayers, but I don't think they gave that permission either. So as you say, they should expect them to be taken down. And from what I've been seeing around town, that's exactly what is happening to them. I wonder how long it will take Flock to stop putting them back up.
            1. akerl_ · · focus · HN ↗
              Flock didn’t just yolo decide to slap cameras up. Your elected officials signed contracts to let them.
              1. __MatrixMan__ · · focus · HN ↗
                Perhaps, but that was overreach on their part.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.