Glad Flock is crumbling.
Good, now do all the other fascist enabling tech companies too.
Remember that Flock isn’t the only company with this exact business model. Cities ditching Flock is moving to their competitors instead.
We need to make it clear that we are opposed to the concept, not a specific company.
Feels nice to wake up to good news for once.
GOOD.
Burn this fucking company and any like it to the ground.
GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!
if only this was the case with ICE.
I could imagine plenty of normal people going to work for a company that purportedly wants to use technology to improve the security of communities. A naive person may not think, “wait, isn’t this turning my country into a dystopian surveillance state?” Nobody that works for ICE got there naively. They were selected from the worst America has to offer.
The ice employees hate people of color more even if they are 🤡
We need to spread this to the other mass surveillance companies, starting with Palantir.
I don’t have that kind of faith in humanity.
Flock has failed but they really just serve as a demonstration of what not to do, for dozens of other companies.
People much smarter than me will have already mapped it out.
What’s the name of the alternative camera company thats been gaining ground while folks are angry about flock?
Axon, same company that makes body cameras for police
Axon, Genetec, Vigilant (Motorola), Rekor, Leonardo… A lot of them and the tech is pretty easy so a hundred other smaller companies. It needs to be banned at the national level by law for any actual change, but good luck convincing the government not to build out the Panopticon they seem to want so badly.
Thank you for the list! ❤️
Sadly Palantir works in the shadows unlike Flock, harder to point out to people
The most easily recognizable by people would be Google and Meta. Those two top the charts for non-consensual surveillance. I think those to need to be reigned in big time, along with some of the other big tech companies. All are anti-consumer. I guess at least those try to have some level of transparency, but they still have awful business practices.
I’ve seen Palantir employees in Charlottenburg while visiting Berlin in 2023 ;) They are not as invisible as you would think. They’ll wear clothing from Patagonia with the branding
The funny thing with Flock is, people have their pants in a knot over the egregious surveillance they conduct - and rightfully so. Yet they’ve been letting themselves be put under constant surveillance for over two decades now, and there are plenty of other Flocks out there doing just as egregious shit today that nobody has heard about.
Flock is a lightning rod. But I fear when they they finally go belly up, their competitors will learn the lesson and keep even more quiet - and people will forget, as they always do.
I think what makes Flock (and Axon, Motorola, etc.) particularly repulsive is the inability to opt out. I can leave my phone at home. I can choose not to bring Smart Devices into my home to spy on me. If there’s a Flock camera at the exit of your neighborhood, your comings and goings are being monitored 24/7. (Before anyone mentions it, I can completely disable and deenergize the “SOS” feature in my car.)
Most surveillance companies offer a benefit. Google offers a tremendous amount of services, as an example.
Flock is just surveillance without societal benefit. Just benefitting power hungry governments.
Axon has been paying attention, you better believe
A better world, through cyberbullying.
The only things that change people’s minds are peer pressure and trauma. Facts won’t do it. You can show someone all the facts in the world proving that their job sucks, but they won’t care. But if all their friends and family start calling their a boot licking shit head and won’t hang out with them? They’ll feel that.
But if all their friends and family start calling their a boot licking shit head and won’t hang out with them? They’ll feel that.
No it won’t. A lot of times people double down.
Ok.
Now do Axon and Vigilant/Motorola!
Doesn’t Axon do bodycams/dashcams? I like those, they put a bit of accountability on the police.
Unless they’re also doing ALPRs, in which case fuck 'em straight to hell.
They are
They are, but only local systems. They don’t do the national network like Flock. Each PD would only have access to their own system.
My city does both Flock and Motorola. Motorola does also have a shared national network, they’re just a lot quieter about it than Flock.
Sucks though, it’s only a software update away from being national.
I suppose that’s better, but only “better” in the same sense that drinking piss is “better” than drinking diarrhea.
Not demoralized enough…
My company counts Flock among our customers. Well, not really: they only bought one thing from us some years ago. But what they bought failed a few months ago, and I’ve had to deal with one of their employees for technical support: the guy was probably among the most arrogant customer employees I’ve had to deal with professionally.
Considering who he works for, I had to make a real effort to stay courteous and professional with him, let me tell you…
Dox him on his “local” boards i.e. NextDoor, Facebook groups, etc.
Nazis and fascists don’t deserve privacy.
Edit: [email protected] feels strongly that Nazis and fascists deserve privacy. Brave.
No way. I like my job.
deleted by creator
I dont mean to call you out, but are you proud of your “annoyed but politely compliant” response to actively being part of a supply chain for surveillance tech? Based solely on this post, your distaste comes off somewhat disingenuous if it doesn’t affect your actions in any meaningful way
It’s called being professional. What do you expect me to do on the job? Take the initiative and insult a customer because I don’t like them? That’s a surefire way to get the sack.
If being a professional means providing no resistance while building the machinery of fascism, are you proud of that? Standing by your principles is not free, I get that. Pretending you care about said principles while actively spending your productive time working against those principles is not the kind of thing I’d be bragging about in an online leftist community though. Real “just following orders” energy
You assume there are no other ways to fight fascism than to jeopardize one’s ability to pay the bills.
As it happens, I’m quite senior at my company, and I think I’ve pretty much convinced sales to drop this customer, should they ever order anything else, on the grounds that they’re quite toxic and we really don’t want to be associated with them.
So there ya go: I still have my job and they most likely lost a supplier.
If being a professional means providing no resistance while building the machinery of fascism, are you proud of that?
Brother, you don’t even know the nature of the deal his employer has with Flock. For all you know Flock just bought some gravel from him for a driveway, calm down. People got bills to pay, and you can’t fight fascism on an empty stomach.
online leftist community
Lemmy World isn’t really a “leftist” community. It’s left-leaning, if you’re being generous.
So there’s still Axon and the other one.
Fucking good
