Flock Condemns False Child Predator Allegations, Yet Calls Critics Terrorists

prophesi 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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 )

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cyanydeez 8 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

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prophesi 5 hours ago | parent [-]

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 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		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.

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retired 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Happy to life in a country where AI cameras are not a thing.

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jfengel 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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culi 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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

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bigyabai 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

	▲	jfengel 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh, I am well aware how deeply screwed we are. I hope everyone else is learning from our negative example.

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retired 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

All of Europe. Haven’t seen an AI camera anywhere.

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realo 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

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jfengel 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We Americans are easily terrified. It just takes a little eyebrow-waggling to suggest that the criminals are easily identified by the color of their skin, so that you're safe from any tactics used to suppress them.

We used to think of ourselves as gradually getting better. Turns out that all that accomplished was to encourage resentment, and we finally got tired of pretending otherwise. I dunno if we can ever get back the illusion of improvement, since it will be clear for a very long time just how powerful the urge to cower is. I hope it's soon enough for you to come visit some day, because we do also have a lot of virtues, but for the moment it's not safe for the inhabitants, much less the strangers.

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nslsm 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, in his texts Cleisthenes was pretty clear that AI cameras weren't acceptable in a democracy.

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freedomben 9 hours ago | parent [-]

A lot of people seem to attribute voter decisions they don't like with != democracy. I don't think people realize that democracies can also be surveillance police state dystopias if that's what the people vote for. It doesn't make it less of a democracy

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realo 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

When 75% of the people in the USA did NOT vote for the current regime, i can hardly call that democratic.

You pay taxes? Vote. Should be mandatory, and the government should make it extremely easy to do.

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xx_ns 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm not from the US, so I hope you excuse my ignorance, but who exactly voted for mass surveillance or AI cameras?

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GaryBluto 8 hours ago | parent [-]

No Democracy has voters vote on every position, they elect representatives who act on a number of policies and aims.

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rationalist 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Unfortunately there is no representative that would vote on every issue how I would want them to vote.

That means if only politicians that are savvy enough to get campaign donations, air time, etc; that claim to represent me on more important issues than cameras, are the only ones on the ballot for me to choose from, and they all like cameras, I don't get much of a say in cameras.

	▲	freedomben 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's not unreasonable, but then by your definition are there actually any democracies in the world as of current? From a practical standpoint, how would that even work? Would the politican call you and everyone in their district before each vote and record it? Or would every bill that comes up have a poll?

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nslsm 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s a democracy when people vote for what I want.

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trekkie99 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> “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.

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iAMkenough 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Pretty amazing they’re framing it as an “accusation,” when there’s access logs obtained via FOIA request that prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were spying on children.

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frankharv 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Whats worse is the town has snubbed its residents:

https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2026/04/17/dunwoody-floc...

How did a Jewish Community Center end up allowing FLOCK to access its security cameras?

Pool and Gymnastics seem like sensitive places unless PEDO.

	▲	jfengel 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I hate to say it, but Jewish organizations get threats all the time. Just yesterday I was at a temple that removed its "reserved for Rabbi" parking space, because he had been threatened and didn't want to make identification easier. An explanation rather than an excuse. But it's not entirely surprising that they would sign up for a service that might help them catch offenders.

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Forgeties79 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don’t know why they don’t like being accused of spying on children when they seem to be doing everything they can to spy on children.