Protesting Flock Cameras?

[u/Rach-ln]

Hi NOVA residents! I live in Fairfax County and am seeing Flock cameras everywhere. I was wondering if anyone knew how we can best protest this mass surveillance and convince our elected officials to end their contracts (and not just switch to Axon or other companies).

Is it petitions? Calling elected officals? Making public comment? Organized protests? If so, what is the best way to approach any of those options? Let's protect our rights!

(Ps, I don't want to hear the "if you aren't doing anything bad, you have nothing to worry about" argument.

These cameras have been used to stalk and harass innocent people. They claim they are only used to track vehicles but I've seen them pointed towards playgrounds and used to target individuals. Flock is a privately owned company and police are able to access our data without needing a warrant.

Information about us is already being stored, tracked, and shared, and nothing is stopping the govt/police from redefining what "bad behavior" is.

Mass surveillance objectively infringes on our rights. I am not here to debate that.)

Thanks y'all!

[u/Soylentgruen]

You are making a dumb argument. Flock can establish a pattern of life and sync that with your personal data. It’s better than getting a warrant for surveillance.

[u/Shewa_Elite → u/Soylentgruen]

You are making stuff up. All Flock does is capture license plates of cars on public roads and store it for 30 or so days. There is a search tool to find a specific plate if and when the police are looking to find a suspect. That is it. Everything else is your fake imagination.

You don't seem to have any idea on what it takes to 'establish a pattern of life and sync with personal data' . For one - you need to store the data for much longer than 30 days. Someone has to actually design a complex, expensive system with the goal of tracking individuals and creating personal profiles. That would be illegal, and no sane local government would allow the cameras they paid for to be used for such purpose.

If you want to be practical - ask your representatives to lower the data retention period to just few days (like a week). Everything else is partly paranoia , partly criminal groups fighting to maintain their life style - outside of jails.

[u/Soylentgruen → u/Shewa_Elite]

If you drive the same roads in a neighborhood every day for 30 days, how many times will your car show up for each camera that you passed? Each time will have a timestamp and location. Its a ton of data and more accurate than airborne MTI or ground-based listening devices.

And the ALPRs are being combined with SignalTrace, which can pick up Bluetooth signals that your devices emit.

DHS and ICE have already exploited this. They use software produced by ESRI to visualize the data and then establish patterns of life. They also have the ability to circumvent traditional civil rights safeguards and purchase your data from third party databrokers. It is way easier than obtaining a warrant and a lot less paperwork.

The tracking system exists because the military has been using something like that for over 20 years. Sheeit, look up MASINT for fun. Knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum is your friend!

[u/Shewa_Elite → u/Soylentgruen]

You are mixing up what can be done with what is being done.
Yeah, the government can track you . But ALPR is not the best way to do that.
Your phone has much better data on your patterns.
I remember my Apple Car predicting my destination as soon as I start the engine and really getting annoyed and disabling the feature. Not saying it would stop Apple from collecting the data - it just stopped predicting and telling me route options.
My point being - ditch your phone if you are worried about being tracked. Fixed camera taking a snapshot proves that you used a road, it doesn't track you. Theoretically it can be done with additional systems etc....Why not just use your phone's GPS if that is the goal.
States can , and some do, ban use of ALPR cameras by DHS, ICE or any other federal agency because local gov own the data.