this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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privacy
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Big tech and governments are monitoring and recording your eating activities. c/Privacy provides tips and tricks to protect your privacy against global surveillance.
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Your flock post reminder that they aren't just license plate readers. They capture Bluetooth and wifi MACs, NFC IDs, and cellphone IMEIs, scan for wifi ssids (exactly like a WiFi Pineapple, to further fingerprint a device) from every device within range. They also do facial recognition of everyone within view of the lens. All that information is sent to flock for sale to any government agency,
A couple of magnets and a small sheet of metal will not only block the camera, but also leave it fully enclosed in a metal box.
A stiff wind or a jostle will knock that loose. Sometimes what you need is a hammer
A few neodymium magnets and that's a non issue. It also makes it harder to prove damages in front of a judge, if you're ever caught.
General Ludd's hammer always worked.
Fuck the people in my town have just started running them over with their cars.
To the point it's making headlines in the news lmao
Black spray paint
That doesn't stop the electronic surveillance.
Sure, but it makes it a whole lot easier for the next activist to disable that
We work in teams. Each accoring to their own ability and risk appetite.
First, someone maps the location of the cameras on OSM. That's totally legal and extremely important for the whole effort.
Next, someone spray paints them. Then someone cuts them down and smashes them. Finally, scrappers come to collect the waste.
Ooh, what a good turn of phrase. I'm taking it.
Some people burn the cameras out with lasers instead of spray paint!
lasers don't damage the entire sensor, it puts dots in the sensor but rarely kills it entirely.
I'm seeing a whole lot of people say otherwise with laser strength talk and have handled cameras before so imma trust them over some random claiming otherwise.
"I'm gonna trust this random that confirms my worldview over another random without asking anyone's qualifications" 🤡
You'd have to sit there for literally over a minute at close range just shining the laser directly into the sensor otherwise you'll just leave spots on it.
https://youtu.be/8bpyMST7eCA
https://youtube.com/shorts/jX6EmldIbR0
https://youtu.be/wREpnGqEhSM
https://youtube.com/shorts/yzJ9ix3KL7c
TLDW: You're unlikely to kill a camera with a laser unless you have a 3W laser, a tripod, and several minutes. It's not the "flash a laser into the lens to kill it" like people keep making it out to be.
P.s. I've been a live music photographer off and on for fifteen years, I've shot around lasers plenty of times. Don't be surprised when Flock adds a laser filter to their lenses.
https://youtu.be/QdkQmtQmhCE
Fuck of a lot smarter than trusting a random with 0 qualifications mentioned.
Not watching shit since you think I'm not discussing using a more than 3w laser. Probably think I meant a red normal one, huh?
Having burned out my own camera equipment testing this shit myself I know what I'm talking about buddy.
Yeah, you don't know shit. I provided several sources of security companies and researchers. Blocked. Go back to reddit.
Also, you're a fucking idiot. 3W is extremely powerful. That's 600x the legal limit, the fact that you're arguing a 3W laser would be a red laser pointer tells me how fucking daft you are.
I was going to go with dog shit but an I am not crafty as all of yous.
I'm just pragmatic. It works better at scale to fill an old fire extinguisher with black spray paint and pressurize it
No, and as said that only blocks the camera and nothing else. Every single thread I've seen feels like there are people who are actively trying to suggest the worst ways to do something to them. It almost feels like paid actors who are there to lower the level of handicap made to the cameras, it's that prevalent.
Again and again it's someone who says the right thing, actually destroying them or using something to disable more than just one thing and there's always replies like yours.
I just don't understand how people witch such immense ignorance and idiocy show up and reply to every fucking thread.
Also microphones
It would be a shame if someone much smarter than me used that knowledge to exploit these systems with ~~malware~~ freedomeware.
What are their inputs?
How does it fetch NFC data when it's only readable within a few cm?
I think the point is, they are scraping any possible data points they can over any tech/frequency/etc. NFC is unlikely unless that is pushed alongside BTLE, BT, or WiFi.
FWIW, businesses deploy tech that does this too, just for pure greed purposes, rather than mass surveillance.
You "can" read nfc from further away, the couple of cm limit is it's designed operation.
You need an emitter with enough field strength to power the remote chip that is also sensitive enough to read the modulation on the signal. You can buy commercial devices that go about a meter. You can get all hacky and push way past that, but you need antennas that are much larger than what would fit in a flock box
That's really insightful, thanks 👍
I questioned that too. Didn't get a satisfactory response. It was a in a presentation for mainly law enforcement to a generally non-technical audience. But I include it in my 'notification' anyway because those bastards are sneaky. The main push of the presentation is that if it emits a signal, it's leaving digital exhaust that can be tracked and correlated.
Well fuck me sideways, I guess. I wonder how much diabetics are tracked by their stuff. My cousin has a pump and a glucose sensor that I'm pretty sure use bluetooth.
Are some allegedly ALPR+car identification (including dents and “convoys”, associated vehicles) only while others (like some capturing walking paths) do the faces + audio & all?