Search results for tag #bigbrother
![[?]](https://media2.ai6yr.org/accounts/avatars/109/321/592/360/914/018/original/f918064fa4350d36.jpg)
"....Her Mic Was Cut, Then Police Dragged Her Away for Opposing Flock Cameras.."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/her-mic-cut-then-police-171212218.html
7 News Miami: FHP trooper fired, accused of sharing Flock camera data, confidential information with friends via text and Snapchat
"...a 15-year trooper, is accused of sending Flock camera data and other law enforcement information to friends through text and Snapchat. He was fired following the arrest and faces three felony charges.
This reportedly came to light following the arrest of an Alabama man who allegedly impersonated a police officer. The man’s phone had messages between him and Fernandez that contained National Crime Information Center data on five people....
“In this case, when you start talking about multiple people, multiple databases, that would lend me to think, ‘Is there some type of criminal enterprise that he might be tipping off, or is there some type of other ulterior motive?'"
93.1 WIBC (Indianapolis): 5 IMPD Officers Charged with Misusing Flock Cameras
One former and four current Indianapolis police officers have been charged with fraud and official misconduct.
"...“These individuals’ actions went far beyond a clerical error or a violation of department policy,” Chief Terry said on Wednesday. “These actions crossed into criminal conduct and shook the foundation of trust that our agency is built upon.”..."
https://wibc.com/897680/5-impd-officers-charged-with-misusing-flock-cameras/
WAVY (Virginia) Flock surveillance cameras vandalized in James City County
"...Police emphasized that Flock cameras are essential for regional law enforcement. ..."
#flock #alpr #privacy #bigbrother
Alt...
Flock camera with spraypaint on lens
The Texas Tribune: Texas freezes installation of Flock cameras along state roads
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/17/texas-flock-camera-pause-highways-txdot/
Ooh, I missed this.
Pflugerville City Council denies new agreement with Flock Safety
"...PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Pflugerville city leaders cut ties with Flock in Tuesday's council meeting following the discovery that nearly 380 unauthorized agencies had access to Pflugerville’s Flock system and residents’ personal information....."
Interesting... someone is tallying abuse of ALPRs
The IJ Database of ALPR Abuse
The Institute for Justice has cataloged more than 200 incidents of ALPR abuse, including romantic stalking, wrongful stops and detentions, non-law enforcement use, and other types of misconduct.
10 News (NBC, TN): Flock removes 133 license plate readers across Knox County
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/flock-removes-133-license-plate-023952128.html
👀
Wisconsin police chief threatens background checks on Flock critics (Aug 25, 2026)
During a July city council meeting, Chetek Police Chief Ron Ambrozaitis slammed critics of the city’s Flock cameras, saying, “I ought to do background checks on half the people that make comments.”
NBC 4 Washington: Arlington to stop using Flock cameras after public outcry
The 41 Flock Safety cameras currently in use around public areas of Arlington will be removed within 14 business days of the decision, the county said.
The Guardian: San Jose officer fired for misusing Flock camera database in domestic abuse case
Police officer shared location of a woman with his relative who is accused of abusing woman
"...A San Jose police officer was fired for using his department’s Flock license plate tracking system to share the location of a woman with the suspect accused of abusing her, Chief Paul Joseph told NBC Bay Area on Friday...."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/13/san-jose-officer-fired-flock-camera-misuse
404 Media: Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’
(Sept 14, 2026)
From the article:
"...“The government’s increasing use of mass surveillance — whether that surveillance comes via ALPRs, financial records, or the like — coupled with predictive policing is a recipe for tyranny,” Rob Frommer, senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, told 404 Media. “We fought a revolution for the idea that we are citizens, not subjects. Yet schemes like CBP’s Predictive Intelligence Targeting Team treat all Americans as if they are potential suspects. This is not just wrong, it’s unconstitutional, and IJ will keep pushing courts and Congress to end this attack on Americans’ security.”..."
404 Media: A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans' Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over
404 Media is revealing the name of Border Patrol's predictive policing units, which analyze financial data and have local cops pull people over. The people are not suspected of any particular crime.
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
"...I'm just an average man with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone, in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone?
I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy (oh-oh, oh)
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me, is it just a dream?..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY&list=RD7YvAYIJSSZY&start_radio=1
"....They're part of the NYPD's massive AI surveillance platform: the Domain Awareness System (DAS). "Every police officer in the city can access it on their phones and pull up a profile of basically anyone walking around," she says.
The platform connects more than 80,000 cameras with drones, social media data, even systems that follow cars when you drive to another state. Dahl says it can unveil who I've seen and everywhere I've been in the last week. My whole life: tracked...."
404 Media: Man Charged With 3 Felonies For Breaking 3D-Printed ‘Decoy’ Flock Camera
"...A police department in Florida used “decoy” Flock cameras that an officer 3D-printed at home to “bait” would-be vandals. Police officers monitored the fake cameras for days, then charged a man with three felonies after he cut down and destroyed one of the plastic devices. The police department in question refuses to release any information about how the decoy operation was devised or carried out and claims there is zero paper trail whatsoever about the operation...."
https://www.404media.co/man-charged-with-3-felonies-for-breaking-3d-printed-decoy-flock-camera/
Santa Barbara Independent: City of Santa Barbara to End Contract with Flock Cameras
After Public Backlash About Data Sharing, City Council Will Discuss Alternative System on August 25
https://www.independent.com/2026/08/21/city-of-santa-barbara-to-end-contract-with-flock-cameras/
Geez, this keeps happening.
WSB TV Florida: Affidavit: Police officer used Flock cameras to track estranged wife 717 times
#flock #alpr #bigbrother #privacy
Alt...
Affidavit: Police officer used Flock cameras to track estranged wife 717 times
Wired: Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
Flock’s surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates.
"...Vehicle surveillance giant Flock Safety has told the public for years that its technology “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, WIRED has learned.
...Because the system also reaches police case files, 911 dispatch logs, and commercial identity records, those plates can be turned into names, home addresses, and relatives. It can search for people in an area drawn on a map based on nothing more than a physical description...."
404 Media: "....The National Park Service (NPS), the agency tasked with managing the U.S. national parks and monuments, has purchased Flock cameras and had them installed at parks including in Yosemite...."
https://www.404media.co/the-national-park-service-is-using-flock-rangers-are-pissed/
Wired: "...In one case, a CBP officer allegedly used government databases to contact a flight attendant. In another, an officer was accused of pulling information from trusted-traveler applications to ask people out. Other CBP employees were accused of providing border-crossing data to someone involved in a “heated divorce.” And yet another DHS employee allegedly used controversial ad-tech-derived location data to track several coworkers’ cell phones..."
Wired: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues’ cell phones.
#bigbrother #privacy #surveillance #stalking
Alt...
CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues’ cell phones.
"...At one anti-ICE event at a church, agents documented the license plate information of attendees, the records showed. When two agents were approached by a man who “asked if they were ICE”, the agent responded, falsely, that they were not...." #surveillance #bigbrother #privacy #uspol
The Guardian: US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal
"...Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year...."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters
Per the Guardian: "..One investigative record showed DHS used administrative subpoenas to obtain “wire transfers from various financial institutions to and from” SEIU, one of the largest unions in the US. Investigators also requested that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provide financial data from the Communications Workers of America, an international union, the records showed....DHS further obtained financial records related to the Sunrise Movement, a national non-profit focused on the climate crisis."
#unions #uspol #bigbrother #surveillance #climate #climateemergency
WaPo: How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking
Flock's array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other
systems.
Alt...
How rogue officers turned a nationwide camera network into a tool for stalking
Flock's array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law
enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other
systems.
🙄
Flock CEO: "...Misuse proved so rampant that Langley decided Flock needed to make the audit feature standard...."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrv1rjwgl9o
#flock #bigbrother #stalking #privacy
Alt...
When he asked her why she disliked the technology so much, she told him it was ultimately a tool for police to "abuse their power."
It turned out that police "kind of feel the same way" as her, Langley said.
Conversations he had with police would often turn to officers saying of their colleagues 'we knew that person was not good. We had no way to prove it'.
Alt...
It automatically creates an audit log of searches being done on Flock, and flags unusual search behaviour.
Most police customers turned on the feature when it became an option. Misuse proved so rampant that Langley decided Flock needed to make the audit feature standard.
EFF: Victory! Flock Ends Rollout of Audio “Distress Detection” of Human Voices
404 Media: How Cops Use Flock to Track People, Not Cars
Jul 16, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Cops have used Flock's FreeForm search feature to look for people with tattoos and wearing specific sport shirts, and searches sometimes include the target's race, according to data reviewed by 404 Media.
https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/
Lucky this driver was not a person of color, because this would more likely than not ended in jail, with physical abuse, or a tragedy involving firearms.
How Flock Cameras Wrongly Tracked Me for Days Over ‘Stolen’ Plates and Sent Police After Me
A simple error got magnified by Flock's nationwide surveillance camera network and ended with four cop cars boxing me in.
The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites
"...An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law...."
#cybersecurity #privacy #bigbrother #doge #fascism
Alt...
‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
The National Design Studio, staffed by Doge veterans, installed visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites
![[?]](https://media.mas.to/accounts/avatars/109/305/969/366/397/563/original/125154463787e947.png)
It’s interesting how many people think wanting privacy means you’re doing something nefarious. The fact is, privacy is about sharing what you want with whom you choose.
(I don’t recall who wrote the words I used in the graphic here or where I originally saw them. I just made it from my paraphrased version.)
#Privacy #InfoSec #OpSec #BigBrother
Alt...
Illustration of some eyes looking straight at you followed by text that reads “I need privacy, not because my actions are questionable. But because your judgment and intentions are.”
"...The Federal Communications Commission wants to require telecommunications providers to collect vast amounts of personal information from every person who wants a phone number in the name of combatting scam and spam calls. ..."
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/fccs-spam-call-proposal-just-data-collection-scheme
![[?]](https://tldr.nettime.org/system_nettime/accounts/avatars/109/528/493/326/851/300/original/ebc905e283d49e82.jpg)
"A VPN ban could be on the table as part of the ongoing internet safety crackdown, which has already seen the Government announce a social media ban for under-16s.On Monday, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced a law change, set to be put in place by 2027, which will ban children from social media and AI chatbots as well as introduce ‘curfews’ to stop ‘doomscrolling’.
The ban was announced in response to concerns that social media is unsafe, making children miserable, and could cause lasting damage to their mental health. On Tuesday morning, Ms Kendall hinted that further restrictions could be introduced on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
VPNs have become increasingly popular in the UK since the Online Safety Act was enacted. Often used by employers to create a network to share resources, VPNs can also be used to spoof or hide your browsing location, thereby sidestepping geographical restrictions. A VPN is a system which connects somebody’s device – normally a computer or smartphone – to a server in a different location. This means that the websites that person visits cannot see their IP address.
It is used by many people for privacy or to get around restrictions that websites place on who can visit a page. It can also be useful for allowing people to work from home and still access their workplace’s resources."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2217934/vpn-ban-table-july-labour
#UK #VPNs #Privacy #NannyState #Surveillance #BigBrother #AgeVerification #DigitalID
Mission Local: Federal agencies ‘improperly’ accessed S.F. license-plate surveillance data, audit finds
Police say ICE, DHS didn’t directly access data, but unclear if it was shared regardless
https://missionlocal.org/2026/06/federal-agencies-sf-surveillance-flock-data-audit/
""Every failed attempt to make children safer online is followed by more surveillance and censorship," he said. "Children have rights too and these policies will harm their free expression and privacy rights, and push them into less regulated spaces. Meanwhile the business models driving harms are untouched."
Others questioned whether the measures can realistically be enforced. Mark Jones, an online harms specialist and partner at law firm Payne Hicks Beach, noted that the consultation closed only weeks ago and warned that determined teenagers have a habit of finding ways around restrictions.
"A social media ban only helps if it is genuinely enforceable," Jones said. "If large numbers of young people simply circumvent the restrictions, parents will just lose visibility into where their children are actually spending time online rather than reclaiming any control."
The political case for the crackdown appears relatively straightforward, but the practical one is less so. The government now has to persuade social media companies to enforce the rules and teenagers not to find ways around them."
#UK #AgeVerification #NannyState #Surveillance #Oligopolies #Censorship #BigBrother #BigTech #Privacy #Anonymity
![[?]](https://files.mastodon.social/accounts/avatars/116/618/636/552/287/427/original/3fb1229d7da50a45.png)
The UK just announced they'll scan every photo on your phone to "protect children." The problem? "Proof of age" isn't defined. No legislation. No spec. No limits. This is surveillance infrastructure with no defined end state.
https://thomaster.substack.com/p/the-uk-is-about-to-scan-every-photo
#Privacy #UK #Surveillance #DigitalRights #OnlineSafety #KeirStarmer #Labour #Apple #Google #BigBrother
![[?]](https://soc.octade.net/octade/s/3f7f2b5eda4e392867c301c49c2daa16.png)
"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."Are the adults listening?
California's computer age verification law is poison. The new California age verification law is a version of INGSOC's telescreen watching you. And the usual self-proclaimed software freedom fighters are AWOL as this attack on your freedom is executed.
Don't listen to apologists who claim this isn't a big deal. It is a huge deal. This law is not about protecting children. The California law is a ruse for laying the foundation and precedent for mandatory remote control of all operating systems. They are using children as a shield for their true intentions. It's called a 'subterfuge' or a 'pretext' to hide the real rationale. And in politics subterfuge is very common. These politicians don't care about your children. They care about control and information is control. Compliance with California's new law is highly corrosive to free software and deadly to personal privacy.
With the mandatory age verification API in place, legislators can later add more laws mandating retrieval of even more privacy-invasive information just to install and use any operating system. This is Big Brother's telescreen in your living room. And the Linux community is nearly silent on the matter, instead focused on artificial intelligence investment.
Where were the software freedom organizations when California was mandating installation of #spyware in all free and open source operating systems? Did they oppose it? Or did they support it by silence? The California age verification law is the greatest threat to software freedom in recent history., striking right at the root of software installation for all users. Yet (((crickets))).
Is silence really tacit support?
"While the [age verification] bill moved through the legislature, the OSI, FSF, Software Freedom Conservancy, and Linux Foundation all sat it out — no testimony, no public analysis, no formal opposition on the record."[https://boingboing.net/2026/03/02/californias-age-verification-law-could-regulate-every-linux-command.html]
Where were they when this mandatory spyware infrastructure was being shoved down our throats? Where were the self-proclaimed software freedom fighters? Where were the calls to action? I didn't see any.
Is silence golden ... or is gold buying silence?
Let these organizations know that you oppose California's age verification spyware law and that you expect them to rally in defense of true software freedom--freedom from government oversight of your software systems. Parents--and not the spyware state--should protect their children. The government is neither your parent nor your god nor your savior and the people should send a clear message stating that.
California, stay out of my operating system! And stay the hell away from children!
@eff@mastodon.social
@linuxfoundation@social.lfx.dev
@fsf@hostux.social
@osi@opensource.org
@conservancy@sfconservancy.org
#AgeVerification #Linux #EFF #OSI #LinuxFoundation #FSF #Privacy #Cybersecurity #Surveillance #Spyware #OpenSource #OperatingSystems #FreeSoftware #SoftwareFreedom #Panopticon #BigBrother #Government
CC: @laffer1@bsd.network @leo@twit.social @MichaelRoss@social.linux.pizza @rms@mastodon.xyz @thenewoil@mastodon.thenewoil.org @TechDesk@flipboard.social @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org
Alt...
A crowd of sillouettes of people stands in front of a giant telescreen depicting a single giant eye watching them.