To everyone currently clutching their pearls over Flock Cameras: it’s *adorable* that this is where you decided to draw the line. Truly heroic stand. Meanwhile, apparently zero concerns about:
The “cell phone in your pocket” one of hundreds of millions taking billions of pictures everywhere around the globe, and allegedly eavesdropping on your every conversation about air fryers.
“Dash cams”, quietly filming your license plate “and” your questionable merge onto the highway.
“Security cameras” on every business, parking lot, and parking garage you’ve ever walked through.
“Body cams”, worn by half the professions in America now, not just cops.
Your neighbor’s “doorbell cam”, which has a better view of your driveway than you do.
“Traffic cameras” at literally every intersection you drive through daily.
Cameras inside “public buses and school buses”, presumably capturing gold.
But sure, a license plate reader, a technology law enforcement has had bolted to patrol cars for “years”, is where you suddenly discover your inner privacy activist. Bold of you to notice the one camera with a name.
Here’s a fun fact: your right to not be photographed evaporates the second you step outside your front door. Folks fought hard for the right to film others in public turns out that right runs both ways. Shocking, I know.
I’m not saying I love these cameras or think they’re all wonderful but I do understand the phrase “you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” If being seen in public is genuinely intolerable to you, the fix is simple: stay home. And if Flock cameras are the hill you’re dying on, why exactly are all the others on that list getting a pass?
For the civics refresher nobody asked for: the 4th Amendment protects against ‘unreasonable government searches’ keyword, ‘searches’. In public spaces, you don’t get a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” because, brace yourself, you’re in ‘public’. Courts have said this over and over. If you can be seen by any random stranger walking by, you can be seen by a camera, including one owned by police or other entity. That’s not a loophole, that’s just how “public” works.
So, genuinely curious: is your outrage reserved exclusively for the one camera with a cool brand name, or do you also lie awake fuming about doorbell cams, dash cams, traffic cams, and the phone recording your grocery list? Would love to hear specifically how Flock — and only Flock — is the one violating rights you don’t actually have in public.
