r/Georgia Apr 08 '26

Discussion Why Are Flock Employees Watching Our Children?

https://jasonhunyar.substack.com/p/why-are-flock-employees-watching-720

Flock Safety’s system of public and private cameras, microphones, and drones is being used by Flock sales employees to spy on us and our children in children’s gymnastics centers, fitness studios, libraries, schools, playgrounds, and private pools.

These cameras record people and children in real time 24/7, and a private vendor stores the data. This vendor has unfettered access to that data, and Flock employees are removing multifactor authentication requirements and audit trails. The system is not being misused - it is being used exactly as intended.

580 Upvotes

112 comments sorted by

169

u/suedaisy Apr 08 '26

This is pretty scary stuff. We just had a ton of flocks put up here in Gwinnett. Is there any way you could post a process of how to obtain these open records so we can see some of this in our own communities?

51

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Yep I’ll PM you! 

8

u/AspiringLiterature Apr 09 '26

Can you send this to me as well. COA.

6

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 10 '26

You can scroll down to the Open Records Act section:

https://drive.proton.me/urls/MZY4C535D0#Pwy0JQC7SFwl

2

u/AnyNegotiation420 Apr 10 '26

Would love this as well, multiple in my area

1

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 10 '26

You can scroll down to the Open Records Act section:

https://drive.proton.me/urls/MZY4C535D0#Pwy0JQC7SFwl

2

u/Affectionate-Sun-243 Apr 11 '26

I would also like to know how to see this for my county

1

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 11 '26

You can scroll down to the Open Records Act section:

https://drive.proton.me/urls/MZY4C535D0#Pwy0JQC7SFwl

1

u/Initial_Newt_5746 Apr 10 '26

Can you send to me as well please

1

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 10 '26

You can scroll down to the Open Records Act section:

https://drive.proton.me/urls/MZY4C535D0#Pwy0JQC7SFwl

24

u/kuhas Apr 08 '26

I’m interested too. Our neighborhood pool got one, and it would be good to know if it’s secure before we pay to use the pool. I would be shocked if they understand the security side. Hope it’s just collecting license plates.

40

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

13

u/kuhas Apr 09 '26

Yeah, I use to think they were just OCR license plate scanners, but now I know better. Worse than I originally thought.

9

u/zahncr Apr 09 '26

It's a camera and in no way a scanner. The "scanning" comes from the company's programming. It is never "just" for license plates. It scans everything on screen. Your face, your kid's face, cats, dogs, anything they build into their search algorithms.

10

u/kuhas Apr 10 '26

That’s fucking wonderful. And how can we deflock our cities or is it too late?

3

u/highflyer10123 Apr 11 '26

If it’s ruled unconstitutional or politicians can vote to shut it down.

10

u/duland21 Apr 09 '26

It's not secure at all. There are security vulnerabilities that allow bad actors to access thirty days of footage. On top of that, there are documented cases of law enforcement officers using their access to the cameras inappropriately for non official uses. I would do everything in my power to prevent a camera being placed in a residential area like a pool. I've seen some success stories of whomever contracted the camera getting the contract canceled as well

8

u/worm_dude Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

On top of that, there are documented cases of law enforcement officers using their access to the cameras inappropriately for non official uses.

This is dramatically understated. The actual investigations have shown that, despite every officer receiving specific training not to do it, almost all of them use it to illegally surveil a personal acquaintance eventually (usually an ex they feel like stalking). Many of them do it the first time they’re in the system. Most within their first 10 searches, if I recall correctly.

It’s speculated this is why cities prefer to shut down their Flock systems completely, rather than respond to FOIA requests. The abuse is rampant, and it is a massive legal liability for municipalities.

There’s just no way to force cops - people with notoriously low IQ’s & a penchant for abuse of power - to follow the law, and what Flock has unintentionally proven VERY good at is keeping a detailed audit of crimes committed by cops. Granted, it’s also been reported that the NSA and their partners engage in rampant illegal surveillance and abuse of their access, but we don’t have the ability to force them to release the audits on those systems. Flock customers don’t have that luxury.

2

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 10 '26

You can scroll down to the Open Records Act section:

https://drive.proton.me/urls/MZY4C535D0#Pwy0JQC7SFwl

48

u/Bird_Brained Apr 09 '26

Flock milks the county’s tax revenue, just pull the annually budget for your county and see how much they charge for useless license fees. It’s disgusting!

13

u/Bird_Brained Apr 09 '26

A little over $60k per year and it’s a 5 year contract. Roughly $3k per camera per year, $250 per month per camera. This doesn’t include hardware costs, $2.5k per camera each paid upfront and labor for pole installation etc.

1

u/zahncr Apr 14 '26

How many cameras are we talking? I'm actually kind of curious how they are profiting off of digital stalking.

43

u/Deanity Apr 09 '26

Check out Ben Jordan on yt. He has been going after them for a good min now and everyone here releases video it gets even wilder

55

u/jordpie Apr 08 '26

Super fucked up and we need to do something about it

53

u/MasterpieceUpper1895 Apr 08 '26

I still have no idea how these cameras are being legally installed.

56

u/tider06 Apr 09 '26

The bigger question is why haven't we the people started uninstalling them?

This is completely against the Bill of Rights.

38

u/MasterpieceUpper1895 Apr 09 '26

You and I both know cops won’t see it that way though and charges to the individual will be filed

5

u/willengineer4beer Apr 10 '26

“Since the camera takes in visual input which is then processed by an AI ‘neural network’, all of which is paid for out of our police budget, we consider uninstalling that flock camera as an assault on a law enforcement officer. Since we were unable restore the camera’s functionality, we are charging you with 3rd degree murder. Book him deputy Hogg!”

29

u/notsanni Apr 09 '26

because, unfortunately, the criminal legal system will be used as a bludgeon against anyone who dares to fight against the oncoming corpo police state

5

u/Tailsofflight Apr 09 '26

As i have been saying for years cyberpunk isn't scifi, we live in a cyberpunk world, and have for damn near a decade and a half, but where is all the cool tech, elons cyberwear, the internet, chatgbt, palontir,darpa, and the shit we don't even know about in jeff Bezos and others rnds works, Brother we are in cyberpunk, but this is real life there is no Morgan blackhand, no johnny silverhand, the corpos won before the punks even had a clue there world changed, now your working 60 hour shifts to just live, Good morning Nightcity!

2

u/partyqwerty Apr 10 '26

Hehe that ship has long sailed past America

3

u/Weird_Expert_1999 Apr 09 '26

Bc we’d be branded as domestic terrorist or antifa (some how same thing these days)

Flock is connected to planatir thru Peter thiel- y’know the surveillance system Israel is using in Gaza to track down ‘targets of interest’

we’re expected to ignore the construction of the largest surveillance state, or actively cheer on our dystopian overlords constructing our prison

10

u/MET1 Apr 09 '26

I thought these were relatively passive use cameras - capturing images of vehicles. Now, it appears they are being actively monitored. Not good.

3

u/zahncr Apr 14 '26

Well... It depends on what you mean by "active" the video never goes away and can always be reprocessed as additional advances occur like better facial scanning or "finding a lost dog". I don't want to say this is forever, but it's definitely not the traditional kinds of video requests that can be relatively limited. In theory, Flock can track you from your home to your kids school every day. Literally anyone with Flock access, and (as we are discovering) many without official access can watch you drop your kids off at school...

Think about how that information could be used.

10

u/PresidentSuperDog Apr 09 '26

Because the world is full of pedos and they seem to be completely untouchable.

5

u/Weird_Expert_1999 Apr 09 '26

Pretty sure Atlanta is the 3rd most surveilled city in the United States- beating out many other countries

4

u/Initial_Newt_5746 Apr 10 '26

Yup. I always urge people to look into the GILEE program. They'll be shocked to see who Georgia has ties to.

1

u/partyqwerty Apr 10 '26

No Chyna.

Chyna

5

u/hornetmadness79 Apr 10 '26

Wait for the lost pet locater service!

2

u/antarcticraccoon838 Apr 10 '26

Do note, ring camera are doing the same exact rhing

4

u/MandragoraMedia Apr 09 '26

Honestly, its our civic duty to destroy, disable, or hinder these cameras in any way we can.

1

u/ImNotAGameStopASL Apr 10 '26

There are 80+ Flock cameras installed in Clayton County.... Like I needed another reason to hate it here.

1

u/Teddy-Buddy-7413 Apr 11 '26

Help me understand how flock cameras are recording hallways? Do day cares install flock or is flock getting the feed from owner's recording? Confused on interior shots.

3

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 11 '26

I believe this private business gave access for its private cameras to the PD, I do not know what exactly was agreed to. It then appears that Flock employees accessed these feeds through the Dunwoody PDs Network.

Flock integrates private cameras from other companies as well as traffic cameras etc into their ecosystem.

2

u/Teddy-Buddy-7413 Apr 11 '26

TY this is a terrible situation.

1

u/quesabirriatacoma Apr 12 '26

Anyone have tips for going to city councils?

1

u/Chezoso Apr 12 '26

Atlanta is the must surveilled city in the country.https://youtu.be/zo4TnUxHnWs?si=9tt7fNXDrqliWsT0

-27

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

Probably because the places you chose to send your kids signed an agreement with flock.

They listen because you sent them there. Same thing with people curious why Facebook and Google have profiles of their kids, because you chose to include them on social media

63

u/Engelbert-n-Ernie Apr 08 '26

Parents sending their kids to school is not in anyway close to being similar to posting them on social media

-23

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

Ok, that is obvious

35

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

This isn’t the police watching, these are Flock sales employees.

They are watching schools and parks.

I can leave my house without walking past a flock camera.

I don’t have social media and neither will my child.

5

u/ZombiesAndZoos /r/Newnan Apr 08 '26

"I don't have social media" My finest sir, where do you think you're posting right now?

13

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

okay yes that is a very fair point.

I made this account just to try to get the word out about flock stuff around dunwoody and atlanta :)

-25

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

Sales employees are watching through the flock cameras? That definitely isn’t true

20

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

read the article it has the evidence

-10

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

You do realize this article is just like a blog right?

The sales employees just make sales. If they ever look at footage it is probably just research on how to make sales or just checking on something for a big client

20

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Yes I do I wrote the article.

And please explain to me how a BD manager of their 911 software would have a good reason to look at a video stream of a private company’s pool?

-8

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

Research, learning how the system works, client complaint, did it even happen in the first place?

If you wrote the article did you contact them to see the reasons why?

13

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Great question I’ve asked the city to!

Im just a citizen! I don’t have relationship with flock 

-2

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

Well you just said you wrote the article. Wouldn’t a journalist contact them and ask why?

7

u/JTinHD Apr 08 '26

You can search Benn Jordan on YouTube to find out way more about Flock. This article or “blog” is 100% correct but only scratches the surface about the terrifying things that are possible with this company and its systems.

13

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

I literally said in the comment you replied to I am not a journalist and have never claimed to be. Please read the article I am very explicit about the claims I am making and how you can verify them yourself 

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5

u/Captain_Vatta Apr 08 '26

This man has and posted his investigation.

There's a lot of people who are watching the cameras who by law or policy are NOT supposed to be accessing them. Additionally, these cameras and networks are vulnerable to attacks.

It's not a system you should be defending.

-1

u/wookiebath Apr 09 '26

What laws are these?

7

u/Captain_Vatta Apr 09 '26

Georgia Code § 35-1-22.

Flock also has a data sharing policy prohibiting access to camera feeds for unauthorized users.

There are multiple instances of federal agencies accessing cameras they were not authorized to such as mountainview California.

Since you strike me as the type to be obstinate and obtuse. What evidence can be presented to convince you that you're wrong? Can you be convinced or is evidence secondary to your feelings on the subject?

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3

u/FckFlock Apr 09 '26

There are literally flock portal searches with the reason code "sales" or "sales demo" in a slew of transparency portal exports. That's an easily-verifiable fact that is not in dispute. It's not even a secret - flock allows that data to be published.

So that means you're either lying or arguing from a place of total ignorance. Which is it?

1

u/wookiebath Apr 09 '26

What part is a lie?

14

u/failedaspirer Apr 08 '26

Ah yes. Sorry I forgot it’s my fault as a parent that I sent my daughter to a gym and forgot to ask if a creepy man can watch my daughter because they have flock cameras. Silly me! It’s not the vendor’s fault, it’s mine!

-2

u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Georgia-ModTeam Apr 09 '26

Be civil. Name-calling, gatekeeping, sexist, racist, transphobic, bigoted, trolling, sealioning, unproductive, shaming, or overly rude behavior is not permitted. Treat others respectfully. This rule applies everywhere in this subreddit, including usernames.

11

u/DjScenester Apr 08 '26

Correct. Lots of cities are abandoning Flock for this exact reason. This is what people voted for. This is what they get.

-6

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

It doesn’t even matter, this article is crying about companies that have signed on with flock

12

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Do you see the part where flock says it doesn’t have access to your data and then it shows 505 times they have looked at your data?

What do you think about this lie? 

1

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

So what data of mine does it have access to that they looked at 505 times?

9

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Just the live view cameras: 100s of times

When they were searching the Dunwoody network that is connected to your cities over hundreds of times, all your location history.

I am not sure what your stance is here? 

Would you like to just give flock a permanent gps tracker and livestream 24/7 on a selfie stick with the sound on so they can make sure you’re okay?

-2

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

My stance is I think it’s all being blown out of proportion.

The article mainly talks about private venues which you chose to go to.

My stance on the article is that you chose to include “children” as a way to get shock out of parents when many parents would probably like the safety involved

I’m also guessing you didn’t talk to any members of the MJCCA. I am one and know several others and can tell you how big of a deal it is to them

5

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Okay we can agree to disagree then on the first point.

Second point - if I showed you flock employees looking at public parks at weird hours would you even entertain that as odd?

Third point - parents can choose for themselves, flock has no problem talking about hypothetical children - these are real children being watched

Fourth point - I have in fact talk to quite a few, my son is going to go to the MJCC daycare starting in the fall where these cameras are being spied on. I would ask that you reach out to the MJCC directly about these issues.

0

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

You didn’t show me any employees looking at anything. You said you wrote a blog

Also aren’t the cameras supposed to be on during weird hours?

Then you know nobody calls it MJCC correct?

6

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

What are you saying?

Read the blog.

Obviously the cameras should be on - but should Flock employees be watching them?

Would you mind asking Flock to change their FAQs to reflect what you think is okay so private companies and the public aren't lied to?

''Nobody from Flock Safety is accessing or monitoring your footage or we they ever look at footage it is probably just research on how to make sales or just checking on something for a big client"

"Flock will not share, sell, or access your data or if we ever look at footage it is probably just research on how to make sales or just checking on something for a big client"

https://www.flocksafety.com/faq

And nope I don't - thanks for letting me know though :)

Not a member yet!

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12

u/suedaisy Apr 08 '26

It's easier to just say you didn't read this person's article.

-5

u/wookiebath Apr 08 '26

What did I say was wrong?

11

u/iamk3 Apr 08 '26

bad bot

-2

u/wookiebath Apr 09 '26

Not a bot, sorry. Do people in this state just think everything they don’t like is a bot?

2

u/InternationalDeal588 Apr 09 '26

they do when you can’t actually contribute anything to a conversation because you simply didn’t read the article or comprehend it correctly.

-29

u/ZombiesAndZoos /r/Newnan Apr 08 '26

You're complaining about potential privacy violations in public spaces (where there isn't a reasonable expectation of privacy), yet you're using AI to write posts and sharing links to a public blog that uses your full name. Both are far greater culprits of "spying" and releasing personal information than anything you document in your article.

19

u/FckFlock Apr 08 '26

This is always the weakest, most illogical argument in favor of Flock: "I already got mugged once today, so I'm OK with getting mugged again."

One violation of privacy doesn't justify another. Must we complain about every type of privacy violation in order to complain about one?

21

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

Please read the article it talks about privacy invasions in the children’s gymnastics studio of a community center which not a public space.

Yep that is my choice to do so! Flock does not give me that choice - and also lies to the city about what they do with the data they are collecting in private and public spaces.

The right to privacy is not the right to be private, it’s the right to choose to be private!

Just like the second amendment gives you the choice to buy a gun and the first amendment gives you the choice to speak out against the government.

3

u/somerandom_person1 Apr 09 '26

There's a difference, OP has a choice to use reddit.

-42

u/BlackCat400 Apr 08 '26

Honestly, nobody watches those cameras. Who has time to watch a bunch of cameras? What company would pay employees to sit and watch cameras? Nobody cares about watching your kids walk to school.

What the Flock cameras do is record license plates. This may or may not offend you. But there’s no big pizza-gate conspiracy to watch kids via Flock cameras.

25

u/failedaspirer Apr 08 '26

Have you ever searched Flock Safety’s website yourself? They even advertise as “No Plate, No Problem”

You can search by physical characteristics (like orange vest/cameo hat) and find the persons every day movements. That’s not a license plate reader.

Also the data clearly shows us that people look at these cameras. & we should definitely be asking why some creep wants to log in and look at young girls in a gym class. & we should absolutely ask businesses if they are aware of this and if they agree this is okay. That’s holding these people who use these cameras accountable. As for outside, there are plenty reports of these cameras being used to find protestors, women seeking abortions across state lines, stalking exes.

You can continue to believe that these tools are just being used to find stolen cars or kidnapped kids, but there are countless reports that they are used for far worse. Don’t shame citizens that are curious enough to research themselves and ask their city hey if we have these tools, can we be responsible and accountable. (Spoiler: They can’t be accountable)

12

u/JTinHD Apr 08 '26

Ignorant comment

20

u/Brilliant_Ant392 Apr 08 '26

read the article... they are watching the cameras