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Our first installation of What the Flock?! features a wider timeline of Flock news, including reports of Flock’s many problems, opposition efforts, resources to take action, and contract cancellations, including in our very own Attleboro, MA!
Even beyond the significant risks posed by Flock to privacy and civil liberties, there lies another question: is Flock good at what it does? I've worked in software and built cybersecurity systems for the federal government, and I believe that answer is a resounding "no.”
We at Mass 50501 have recently started the Flock Off Campaign, a project designed to curtail mass surveillance in Massachusetts by removing AI-powered traffic cameras owned and operated by Flock Safety from our local communities. Since launching this initiative, we have heard some concerns that opposing Flock Safety’s recording also puts citizen’s right to record at risk. In this article we will show that this fear is unfounded since different types of recording have very different places in the law.
Politics in the US are more divisive than ever, but there are still a few topics on which most Americans can agree: apple pie is delicious, football is the most popular sport, and dogs are adorable. A penchant for protecting our four-legged friends is normally a positive, but on Super Bowl Sunday, Americans’ love for our canine companions was weaponized against us by Amazon’s Ring cameras, their partnership with Flock, and Flock’s dealings with ICE.
We asked the Democratic primary candidates for Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District seat their thoughts on AI-powered Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology in our communities. Here’s what they had to say.
Long gone are the days of “innocent until proven guilty” and personal privacy. There are fewer and fewer places that are free from our overlords’ constant gaze. Ugly black poles went up all over town. One lonely conspiracy theorist camped out by a pole closest to the center of town shortly after their appearance. They signal aliens! They’re watching us!, he declared.
Allowing the collection of this data in the context of an antagonistic federal administration endangers us all— it’s an invasion of privacy that we shouldn’t accept even under the friendliest administration. None of us should be put under this kind of microscope by our government.