• obvs@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      If you’re in the U.S. you’ve probably seen them in grocery store parking lots. They typically are like a trailer hitch with a bunch of solar panels on it, and then a pole, and a multi-directional camera on the very top of the pole, with a blinking light. I’m colorblind, but I think the light is blue.

      They claim to be for the security of the business, but what they do is to monitor all license plates and all cars that come into a given area(and they can identify the same car even if the license plate is changed).

      And I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with that if individual businesses wanted to have closed-circuit video for their parking lot, but these things are networked nationwide, so this company can track the exact location of your car nationwide, each and every time one of your cars drives by these things.

      The operation of these things should be a felony, and it makes sense that people are destroying them now. I completely understand why.

      • lyralycan@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        I thought they started getting destroyed because they implemented facial recognition and agreed to collude with ICE to track down dark-skinned folk.

        Edit: While I was fact-checking the brands involved with ICE I did come across another company, owned by Motorola, called Vigilant Solutions. Their specialty - and crime - is also reading and tracking license plates across the country. I hope they get just as much awareness.

      • OwOarchist@pawb.social
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        1 day ago

        They typically are like a trailer hitch with a bunch of solar panels on it, and then a pole, and a multi-directional camera on the very top of the pole, with a blinking light. I’m colorblind, but I think the light is blue.

        That’s one version of surveillance, but I don’t think it’s from Flock. That’s a different company (though no less worthy of destruction).

        Flock cameras look like this:

        While they’re sometimes seen in parking lots (especially entrances and exits), they’re typically installed on the side of the road in seemingly random places.

        • iknewitwhenisawit@fedinsfw.app
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          1 day ago

          IIRC the Supreme Court has ruled that the police buying information from private companies does not require a warrant, so you have no 4th amendment protections.