We raised concerns about Flock cameras in Rolling Hills a couple of years ago. Since then, we have talked about it with a lot of people. Our police see the lost child found quickly, the tragedy averted, and a safer, happier community. But in these conversations, we keep hearing anger and frustration.
People are concerned that our community is under un-American, warrantless surveillance. Some worry that evidence gathered without a warrant gets thrown out, and that genuine dangers to our community would persist. Others fear the potential loss of community funds to lawsuits. People fear abuse of these systems. Fear that someone who should not have access could track you leaving your house and rob you.
Some people say, “Well, I’m not doing anything wrong, what’s the big deal?” Our answer: spend some time talking to defense lawyers. A seafood merchant was sent to prison for years for incorrectly importing lobsters from Honduras (Right On Crime (opens in a new tab)). In his book Three Felonies a Day, defense lawyer Harvey Silverglate argues that the average person commits about three unwitting federal crimes a day (Princeton Alumni Weekly (opens in a new tab)). In a legal landscape this broad, this technology threatens everyone, because almost anyone’s ordinary conduct could be framed as a crime.
Security matters too. Wired reported that a hacker collective pulled down a Flock camera and dumped its data. The recovered logs showed about 1.6 million images of roughly 50,000 vehicles across about 21 days of activity (Wired (opens in a new tab)).
Some people see the cameras without really considering all the data pooling together. With a lot of data, you can make surprisingly accurate predictions. An angry father once stormed into a Target store and slammed down pregnancy-related coupons sent to his teenage daughter, only to find out that Target’s algorithms had figured out she was pregnant. The corporation knew before the grandfather did.
Many technology companies make information available to data brokers. Imagine you are applying for a job. You have passed every interview, and it seems like a perfect match. As a last step, the employer reaches out to a candidate screening firm. Its report on you includes a desperation score. It gives the lowest possible salary you are predicted to accept, calculated down to the cent.
