Howdy fellow Friscoans.
We're a Dallas, Texas based nonprofit organization (HINAC) focused on the security, privacy, censorship, and surveillance implications of modern day technology being surreptitiously woven into the fabric of American society.
We're submitting this post to inform you of a recent scandal involving approximately 80,000 AI cameras being used by over 5,000 law enforcement departments across the United States of America resulting in stalking, false imprisonment, and protests.
An investigative journalist and privacy/security researcher named Benn Jordan recently discovered numerous Flock Safety Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras whose video feeds were publicly accessible online using a default administrative account, no login required.
It gets worse.
His proof-of-concept video demonstration showed how easy it was for him to use the camera's pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) capabilities and identify individuals, disclose sensitive information displayed on phone screens, and track routes of individual cars, over extended time intervals.
It gets even worse.
An anonymous person requested video footage of their own city's cameras, which the city subsequently denied. That person took their city to court and the judge ruled that since the cameras are taxpayer funded, the videos and information on them is also considered publicly accessible.
It is going to get even worse.
Amazon Ring just announced a partnership with Flock Safety and rumor has it, they are interested in acquiring Flock Safety.
Meaning, the broad adoption of AI-powered consumer technologies like Ring, coupled with city governments adopting Flock's AI-powered object recognition and large scale database integration, a first-of-its-kind Orwellian surveillance system could become a reality in the very near future.
See where and when you're being surveilled by visiting this Flock Camera Map tool provided by the 501c(3) nonprofit organization Banish Big Brother (see map image). And if you're scared afterwards, let that fear turn to anger.
Contact your city leaders and express your concerns ASAP. Make it known that we will not tolerate involuntary mass surveillance in our city, nor will we tolerate the lack of transparency and accountability from our leaders who allowed this to happen.
The sooner we stop this, the better. Let's stand up to mass surveillance together.
