Posted on 07/24/2026 6:30:27 AM PDT by MtnClimber
There is probably a camera on a pole at the entrance to your neighborhood. You’ve probably stopped noticing it. It is small, solar-powered, unremarkable, and it photographs every car that passes: yours, your neighbor’s, your teenager’s. And it reads the license plate, logs the time, and files the record in a national database. The company that owns it is called Flock Safety. Founded in 2017, valued at $7.5 billion, it now operates in more than 5,000 communities across 49 states, and its network scans roughly 20 billion vehicles a month.
Twenty billion. Each month. For perspective, there are about 290 million registered vehicles in the United States, which means the average American car is photographed, catalogued, and made searchable hundreds of times every year. Not because of a federal, state, or local warrant, not by court order, but by a subscription service your city council approved in the middle of tedious meeting never covered by any news organization and attended by a few bored citizens.
And the license plates were just the beginning.
Flock Safety now sells cameras that automatically zoom in on faces, audio sensors that listen for gunshots and, per an October company announcement, human screams, drones, and a “public safety data platform” called Nova that merges plate reads with data-breach records and public files into a single searchable profile.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s verdict on Nova: a “dystopian panopticon.” In September 2024, Oracle’s Larry Ellison stood before financial analysts and described where all this is headed with admirable candor: “Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
And he meant it as a selling point.
It is worth recalling how we got here, because the road, while sadly well-worn, is instructive. In April 2004,
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
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I wonder if this is one of the reasons all of these data centers are being built.
the government can watch me as much as they want, but they will be very bored.
I personally want the government to be watching and recording things to deter crime and make punishment easier.
Who knows? Maybe some day they’ll get good enough to predict a crime will happen before you commit it and arrest you ahead of time to protect the public. The future is bright!
or maybe someday they will catch every criminal that commits a murder, rape or robbery
Will certainly make the mask compliance much easier.
Until the definition of “crimes” become so broad that anyone, anywhere, could be arrested for practically anything. That’s what happened in Russia.
I posted this yesterday on the "Microsoft Confirms Windows Has a Global Device ID You Can't Turn Off (GDID)" thread (apologies if you already read my rant):
We switched car insurance to Allstate earlier this year. They want me to run THEIR app on MY phone using MY data service to track ME using location services and the accelerometers in the phone to measure my acceleration, deceleration, cornering, my location, my route, origin/destination, etc! If I don’t comply, I don’t get the “good driver” discount we signed up for.And Allstate is a worse nagger than the worst mother-in-law. Here are the text messages from just the past two weeks:“Out of control” doesn’t begin to describe it. The last thing I want is Big Brother sitting in the passenger seat.
1. Hi [me], it’s Allstate. We noticed you haven’t set up Drivewise yet. To keep your discount and get a personalized rate based on your everyday driving, you need to download the Allstate app, create an account and accept a few permissions. You can text YES for the link. Text X if you don’t want reminders.Yeah, just "accept a few permissions" -- like inviting them to be with you 24x7 watching EVERYTHING you do. All to save a few shekels on your car insurance.2. Drivewise helps you save with a rate based on you. The sooner you finish setting up, the sooner you'll meet the trip requirement and keep your participation savings. Plus, most customers save with Drivewise, and the safest drivers can save up to 30% off. Text YES for the link to download the app and set up Drivewise today.
3. Setting up Drivewise is simple, [me]. Just download the app to create your account -- and follow a few quick steps to enable motion/fitness and location permissions. Text YES for the link or reply HELP if you’d like a video walkthrough. -Allstate
4. [me], don't forget: your participation savings depends on completing 50 trips. Download the Allstate app and get set up today to start logging trips. Just text YES for the link.
5. Hi, [me] -- don't miss out! Set up Drivewise to view your savings and get personalized insights, all while your trips count towards keeping your participation savings. Text YES for the app link to finish setting up today!
6. [me], it's Allstate here with a final reminder. Your Drivewise discount depends on getting set up. Download the Allstate app, create an account and accept a few permissions to avoid losing your participation savings at renewal. Text YES for the link to get started or call (xxx) xxx-xxxx for additional support.
Yes! This is the real reason for the data centers! Only morons would welcome these stalking devices into their neighborhoods.
“Utopia” (2013)
A tv series from the UK about a comic book that contains hidden info on a disease vaccine (maybe). It shows how a true surveillance state would work. Ignore the Cusack remake. This is a very dark and violent show. ‘Where is Jessica Hyde?’
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2384811/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_utopia
But, let's say that we end up with an insane, all-intrusive and abusive government who clamps down on all of our activities, revokes the Bill of Rights - in other words, Democrats - and we as a people want to organize a resistance to fight back....?
Not so fast.
This is where this is going.
SALES OF HALLOWEEN MASK RISE-—
POLITICIANS STUMPED
Yes! This is the real reason for the data centers! Only morons would welcome these stalking devices into their neighborhoods.
The Flock camera dataset is a tiny subset of the data available.
Nearly everyone carries a cell phone. It tracks all your movements and records them. It is more efficient than Flock cameras, but notas easily available, because Flock cameras only record movements on public roads.
I suspect one reason the murder rate is dropping is the availability of all this data is making it much easier to track and convict criminals.
A benefit, but is it worth the loss of liberty?
There’s one way in and out of my subdivision and I love having a Flock camera monitoring it..
Not if you toast the camera with a powerful laser, it aint.
Bookmark.
You think just because Trump is president the WEF types have given up on 15 minute cities (geofenced and have fun with car kill switches), digital ID, CBDCs, and the ‘you’ll own nothing and like it’ paradigm? Think again.
The idea of recording and tracking people daily is anathema to liberty and free thought.
Its always the small percentages of people who commit more crimes and harm the most people. We don't have to be a Orwellian state, just lock those up.
The drop in the murder rate is consistent with both the greater flow of information from cameras and cell phones and with the increase in the carry of firearms by a significant percentage of the population.
The restoration of Second Amendment rights is probably significant in this case.
On the other side, when people mostly lived in small villages, everyone knew everyone else’s business. What ever happened in public was gossiped about. The recording and tracking today is less personal, and on a national, even global scale.
There is very little privacy anymore. Can we create some in the law... maybe, possible.
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