I recently discovered a company called Flock which apparently is building a massive surveillance network. I came across a reddit post on r/sysadmin where an admin received a request to install a black box device so that law enforcement could access cameras.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safety

https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/how-to-pump-the-brakes-on-your-police-departments-use-of-flocks-mass-surveillance-license-plate-readers (disclaimer: I don’t support the political views of ACLU)

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1eu0fje/local_police_want_permanent_access_to_our_cameras/

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They are fairly far left. I think freedom and privacy shouldn’t he political. That is why I felt the need to leave a disclaimer as there are some political statements in the page.

Everything is political. Unfortunately. BUT I am for ANY org that is in favor of individual rights and freedoms. Haven’t looked at the ACLU in a while tho tbf

Because you make it that. Its political for you but for me, no.

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The ACLU isn’t to bad but they are definitely liberal. However, the work they do benefits us all. The EFF is a little less left leaning so I tend to prefer articles written by them.

Less left leaning than liberal? Are you suggesting the EFF is conservative?

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No, I am not. I am saying they are a little less politically extreme. They are left leaning but they less public about it. They still have left leaning views but they aren’t as vocal about it.

everything is political.

this company pushing invasive surveillance tech upon underserved-and-overpoliced communities like mine is political.
our “representatives” accepting invasive surveillance technology is political.
our “representatives” requesting more invasive surveillance technology is political.
“law enforcement” having (real-time) access to all of these invasive surveillance tech like LPRs & cameras is political.
the core purpose of the police is political.

Also, the political cannot be seperated from the economic.

the bourgeois capitalist corporate media outlets push narratives that spread fear because it draws attention… more eyes/ears means that they can sell commercial time/spots at a higher rate to advertisers.
so, these outlets generate revenue by scaring the shit out of their audience.

our ostensible “representatives” run on & fundraise off of these manufactured narratives.

the police officer associations use this fear to lobby our “representatives” for greater resources (i.e., an increased share of the municipal budget (i.e, less money for everything else) shiny, new toys, more officers, etc.).

the companies supplying invasive surveillance tech make money through sales and/or (future) contracts.

it’s all political, and the political is connected to the economic.

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I don’t think you need to be a minority to be impacted by this tech. That is actually the most terrifying part. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from you are being watched constantly. To be far most peoples cell phones use Google and the cell phone companies can track you somewhat with the modem. The difference is a phone isn’t needed for transportation. Also your face is hard to change let alone your walk or any other ways they can identify you.

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I don’t think you need to be a minority to be impacted by this tech. That is actually the most terrifying part. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from you are being watched constantly. To be far most peoples cell phones use Google and the cell phone companies can track you somewhat with the modem. The difference is a phone isn’t needed for transportation.

Do you mean that you don’t like the way they prefer to defend individuals against corporations rather than the other way around, or the way they don’t help people defend themselves against lawful and reasonable government action?

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I don’t mean any of those things. I just want to point out that I don’t support the political statements. I am not looking to start a fight.

“I am not looking to start a fight”

That works, sometimes.

The ACLU stopped being neutral long ago, if they ever were.

Fuck the ACLU at this point.

FYI, as someone who has only seen good work from the ACLU, If you don’t explain what they did that you consider wrong, I’m gonna assume you’re potentially a mentally ill lunatic, rather than having rational grievances.

If you consider the ACLU to be ‘far left’ I don’t think I want you at my kickbacks tbh

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