2 HN users recommended this commentary2 months2025–2026score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it as in-depth independent coverage of Flock license-plate cameras and their security and surveillance problems.
Benn Jordan concludes his Flock trilogy, filmed on a publicly deployed Flock Safety camera, covering a leak of camera feeds reported by 404 Media. He shows the cameras' capabilities, including panning to track people.
“I recommend them.” (HN, 2026)
2 recommendations · 2 citations · Commentary · news from the time
> I feel there has to be something between "I heard about a thing 7th-hand" and "I actively watch political discourse / read scientific papers", but I'm no longer sure The News, as we currently know it, is it. I have found that some Youtube channels and videos (non-comprehensive examples below (I have hundreds of subscribed channels), mostly not politics, but these things inform politics since politics is making decisions about other things) can fill this gap nicely. This is not a perfect choice, since journalism integrity and standards do not apply, but I find that this can be mitigated by watching a wide variety (for example, in the field of economics, I regularly watch creators who espouse everything from very free-market capitalism all the way to full on communism). There are likely other forms of new media that operate at this level of depth, but I haven't found htem. [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] (and associated channels) [link] (recent good example [this video] )
Recent example of in-depth independent coverage on Flock cameras.
Musician-turning-tech anarchist (?) Benn Jordan is making a very interesting series of videos about Flock cameras, their poor safety, and their gray-area interfacing with local governments: [link] [link] [this video] [link] I recommend them.
Series on Flock camera safety and local government ties.
Flock cameras are advertised as ALPR but have facial/vehicle/etc recognition systems running on them as well. You can see one panning up to track other people near the end of this Benn Jordan video on the cameras. [this video]
That's not my problem. Why wasn't he fired after the vulnerability was revealed? [this video] Does IDF service mean their position is immune to valid criticism of the job? How do we know as Americans that it's secure when the individual who is senior and leading connectivity has likely served a foreign intelligence agency/millitary? Is this not alarming as videos weren't encrypted and public?
Cited as evidence of the vulnerability and unencrypted video.
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