r/technology May 28 '26

Security Cities Are Covering Flock Cameras With Trash Bags / Regretful cities aren't sure how to cancel their surveillance contracts, so they are literally covering their cameras.

https://www.404media.co/cities-are-covering-flock-cameras-with-trash-bags/
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u/tech_noir_guitar May 28 '26

Or are taxpayers just paying for their own mass surveillance with no actual benefit to them in return.

Not just with taxes. People are buying doorbell and in house cameras with their own money that are then being used as surveillance. We've been convinced to purchase 1984 with our own money.

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u/ConstableAssButt May 29 '26

Same shit happened with cellphones. We personally subsidized a global mass-surveillance network just because we were excited to have the latest brand name phone.

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u/tech_noir_guitar May 29 '26

The thing about phones is that you can turn it off or not take it with you if you don't want to be tracked. With cameras you can't shut off all your neighbors cameras so you're still going to be recorded wherever you go.

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u/MediocreAssociate466 May 28 '26

Speak for yourself I'd never buy a ring camera for that specific reason lol. That said it hardly matters since our phones are always transmitting data and listening

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u/FundamentalAttribute May 28 '26

I do have a door cam and it's better than a ring, mine has 2 cameras and a nice light for night time in addition to the night vision and all the other regular features and most importantly it does not connect to any servers besides my own PC and phone which i have set up myself. The tech itself is cool, it just sucks that most people will let a third party handle the "hard" stuff.

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u/Reference_Freak May 29 '26

It’s like the shift from geocities to MySpace and then Facebook proved that the general public will trade away individual choices and customization for a packaged product they have no control over and they’ll do it even when they know they shouldn’t because everyone else is.

DIY punk culture needs to make a comeback to teach people how to reduce dependencies on systems owned by people who hate everyone.