Pull to refresh

Flock Condemns False Child Predator Allegations, Yet Calls Critics Terrorists (ipvm.com)

by jhonovich 34 comments 86 points
Read article View on HN

34 comments

[−] prophesi 26d ago
Whether or not Flock employees are child predators or not, the crux of the issue lies in the third parties Flock allows access to these cameras. For a link to their actual blog post where they make this comment: https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/understanding-flocks-testin...

(The terrorist allegations are from an interview December of last year https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46357850 )

[−] cyanydeez 26d ago
I don't think third party access matters in the reason it's being scrutinized. Flock is the tip of the commercial security state offloaded by the government to it can "sanewash" it as a input into government surveillance.

I don't care who operates flock; it's being used to do government surveillance at scale to avoid privacy laws.

[−] prophesi 26d ago
The government is a third-party as well. Leveraging Flock to skirt privacy laws is two sides of the same coin; commercial entities are doing this too.
[−] cyanydeez 26d ago
So, that's an interesting semantic. I think we're often dealing with the same philsophical argument about the FBI 'finding" terrorists versus 'inciting' terrorists via entrapment.

I'd argue Flock doesn't exist if the government for private surveillance didn't exist.

[−] prophesi 26d ago
I'd agree with that to an extent. The USA is in a corporatocracy, so I'd argue it's the private corporate entities lobbying for the government to utilize their private surveillance. In general I try not to grant conspiratorial competency which could be better explained by the exchange of money.
[−] sieabahlpark 26d ago
[dead]
[−] retired 27d ago
Happy to life in a country where AI cameras are not a thing.
[−] jfengel 26d ago
Where is that? Are they banned, or just haven't reached you yet?

As dumb as it is that we've invited a corporation to spy with government approval, I suspect that less formal but still ubiquitous surveillance is coming for you, too, unless your government actively prevents it.

[−] culi 26d ago
China's supreme court banned the use of facial recognition in public spaces in 2021.

Americans need to wake up and realize they are the exception not the rule when it comes to the normalization of a surveillance state

[−] KetoManx64 26d ago
China has a social credit score that controls what schools, jobs, and things you can buy. If yohr score goes down too low you can lose your job and lose your degrees.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVkWokLqPOg
[−] frm88 26d ago
There has been a degree of misreporting and misconceptions in English-language mass media due to translation errors, sensationalism, conflicting information and lack of comprehensive analysis.[7][43][122][44][123] Examples of such popular misconceptions include a widespread misassumption that Chinese citizens are rewarded and punished based on a numerical score (social credit score) assigned by the system, that its decisions are taken by AI and that it constantly monitors Chinese citizens.[16][122][39][124][5][6]

From wikipedia, section Misconceptions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_credit_system

[−] culi 25d ago
No that is made up nonsense. It's mind boggling to me how many Americans truly believe in this.

They have attempted many times to create a credit score system like the US but have failed to centralize anything like the US has. The US credit score system is also much more pervasive and can sometimes determine whether or not you're allowed to buy a house.

Separately there was an attempt to build a "social credit" system that is only applied to political and business leaders. Basically anyone who holds some sort of power in society. It's not a way to control regular people. This also failed to ever come to anything that's truly nationalized.

[−] bigyabai 26d ago
Yes. They are banned in many places where the population has control of the government instead of letting Larry Ellison making that decision on your behalf.

I suspect that you underestimate how captured America's politics are on a relative scale.

[−] retired 26d ago
All of Europe. Haven’t seen an AI camera anywhere.
[−] realo 26d ago
Yes... me too. It is called a democratic country, where citizens value the environment created around them by their government.

That is NOT what the USA is, at the moment. Very happy not to live there, or go there in any capacity.

[−] trekkie99 27d ago

> “Accusing someone of spying on children is not a policy disagreement; it is a life-altering allegation.” - flock

“life altering”? Oh so like a women and her kids being held at gun point while face down on the hot tarmac of a parking lot cause your stupid ai cameras got the wrong car.

[−] micromacrofoot 26d ago
[flagged]