Anyone might wonder how often they are caught on police cameras that operate 24/7. I spent a day driving, and over a month trying to get the answer.
It’s a paradigm shift where we go from having an expectation of privacy even in public spaces to its inverse. Not only do we not have a right to privacy in public; we don’t even have a right to see ourselves as the government and police might see us — a set of still moments in place and time from which they, not us, can decide what our story is.
What could possibly go wrong?
an expectation of privacy even in public spaces
Anyone with this expectation in a post-Patriot Act world has not been paying attention.
They need wardrivers. There’s a simple app linked on that site you can run on your phone and it just automatically sends the data, confirming and refining the location of these cameras. If you want to go hunting, this is fun: https://mateslab.weebly.com/bluedriving.html
After finally getting into some embedded/iot tech, privacy, and tbh my own socialist awakening, I’ve been really interested in this kind of stuff.
Is it mostly about awareness or is there something more substantial to the practice and research? It’s such an odd concept to me I haven’t sussed out the details further than the hacker-y, just for fun, “because I can” projects. I’d love to use some tech skills for real purpose.
I just like wardriving, honestly. I like to find radios and see who’s doing what. I like other radios too, I have a GMRS license and Technician license. I did a small stint 25 years ago in a mountain community working with directional wifi, we were using 802.11 and pushing it through line of sight antennas, allegedly at a higher power than 802.11 is supposed to be used. Allegedly. Before I got my mast up I was actually using two 56K modems bonded together using a Sun SPARC lunchbox. Having broadband in that situation at that time was magical.
So yeah, a whole big bunch of “because I can” and I don’t like the current surveillance state so I do what I can to push back.
I’ve always been a software guy, but man does building and doing something more physical sound fun. And the community around it all. I plan to get started (at some point) with a homeserver. Networking always felt more high stakes with security and privacy than the application side. Indie web has been calling my name though.
selfhosted on lemmy.world is pretty active. /r/selfhosted is very active.
Well, if it’s any consolation all of the holes in a network come from the software.
quick edit: I recently got a Microtik router and it’s really cool. I’ve run various open source router/firewall software for decades and I really like the Microtik. I got one that mounted in my wall network rack because that’s fun and it was cheap (old model). It’s only got the 1gbit SFP port but that’s OK, I’m learning the interface they call WinBox and to be honest? I like it better than the command line.
What’s the camera technology like? Is a distributed citizen-owned network to watch the watchers feasible?
Flock? They use good cameras but I’m not sure of specs. Those pictures in the article are straight from those cameras. Their magic is in the software, the ALPR plus the “car fingerprint” is what makes them valuable. deflock.me is us watching the watchers. Now… who’s the best shot with a paintball gun?
Thanks. Pleasantly surprised that there are not too many ALPRs nearby me according to deflock.me. I was thinking, though, what about privately owned ALPRs to track known enforcement vehicles. I didn’t know what laws come into play there (or what unequal enforcement). The photos on the article do look high quality though, definitely beyond a Pi camera board pointed out a window. OTOH tagging “purple bumper sticker” or “bike rack” honestly doesn’t sound that far beyond OpenCV or AI tools these days.
Well, no ALPRs that anyone has clocked yet. The map does not show areas that are or are not checked, yet. They are working on it. You could drive around and look for “Penguin-*” BT devices.
Not illegal to run an ALPR, as evidenced by Flock rolling this shit out nationwide. This video gives you a good look at the current gen, will probably change as they improve.
Good article. Alarming that we’re surveilled so much… As I type from my phone…
I live in a rural area and they stated covering the large town/small city in the area with these last year. It started with just a few on choke points in and out of town, but now they have started placing them at various areas in town, including all entrances/exits to Lowe’s.
That’s funny there’s only one in my town, and it’s facing the Lowes parking lot.
Gotta protect Lowe’s from those immigrant terrorists here to impregnate our women and take our high paying jobs
We have a few around in NW Oregon and they’re all in Home Depot parking lots for some strange reason.
They might be tracking the homeless who are living in their vehicles. As well as poor laborers who might be hiring out to do work for cash.
Delete your car if you are able to
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England has the most cctv cameras. They do come in very handy when it comes to catching violent criminals though.
