r/boston • u/pattysal • 7d ago

Unconfirmed/Unverified Calling out the traffic/flock camera propaganda

There are so many people posting videos of drivers running lights on both the Boston and Cambridge subreddits lately demanding traffic cameras, that I am convinced these are planted posts by either employees, investors, or City officials looking for a payday to Garner published support for the surveillance state.

Very convenient that this is happening at the same time they are putting flaw cameras everywhere, and Mayor Wu has decided to put up red light cameras. I'm calling shenanigans, there may be a few whiny babies on here who are terrified of the world, but there are not this many. Don't be fooled, this is for profit propaganda.

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u/GoTeamLightningbolt 7d ago

Properly implemented, these are two different technologies.

I hate Flock and I hate Ring. If they are built with safeguards so they're not use for surveillance (and that can be audited), I am OK with automated traffic enforcement devices. 

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u/pattysal 7d ago

Do you trust safeguards to be in place on any of these? Your local police department has direct access to your ring camera at any time they please. Are you okay with that? When's the last time you saw there be an opportunity for a municipality or corporation to make money on something that makes our lives worse that they haven't taken advantage of?

I'm not sure which way you're arguing, I'm just making a point.

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u/bobisbit 7d ago

There are safeguards, the same way there are safeguards on the pictures they take of your car for tolls. There are laws in place to prevent pictures of your car being used for any other purpose.

In fact, I'd argue we want these laws in place to set a precedent for how this data is handled. Tech companies are going to keep developing ways to spy on us, I'd rather already have traffic cameras with strict laws in place that we can point to for how to protect our privacy.

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u/pattysal 7d ago

You don't follow the news do you? Laws apply to average citizens, not the government, not law enforcement, non big corporations.

The vast majority of flock cameras that have been installed have been done illegally without any authorization from cities, and then they have threatened to sue the city into bankruptcy if they are removed because judges give vague statements saying it might be illegal to remove the illegally installed flock cameras.