Under the standard Flock contract, those Data Centers come into the picture. This is a very short excerpt from a lengthy letter on the topic.
... What Flock’s (and every other similar such system, like Axon) do is use machine learning to take from the photographic image that the vehicle is a 2015 silver Mazda 6 with a given tag on it. This is then put into a common format such as the above and hashed using the common SHA256 algorithm which produces the above string. That string along with the date, time and exact location of the camera is then stored in their database and never deleted. They also can do the same thing with any other identifiable data they collect, such as the Bluetooth MAC address of every single phone in the vehicle (you can read that if you’re within about 30’ of any such device that is turned on), the WiFi address (if your phone has it on or your car has a “hotspot” it can be read within a couple hundred feet), the same for any “connected car” interface (e.g. cellular, which most modern cars have even if you’ve not subscribed to the service) and even the TPMS sensors in your tires which are RF-transmitting devices that have unique serial numbers and likewise can be read from the side of the road. In addition the same machine-learning can turn a face into a set of machine representations and then hash that. All of this of course has a unique “serial number” as well which the system can trace back to the precise location of the camera that took the image along with the date and time and each piece of said information thus links you to everyone (and everything) else captured in that same event.
All of this is stored permanently by Flock and every one of these other firms in a database which is why they need these huge data centers to do so. Then at any time any person who they decide is part of their commercial interest and Flock permits to do so, not just law enforcement, can ask their system to produce a detailed map of every place every one of those desired markers has been from the first time they were ever seen all the way to the present day, including all linked persons and known associations, all without having a single original image. Sheriff Hodges’ wife, children and grandsons, if they have been “scanned” by such cameras (e.g. if they have a personal cellphone or have had their faces imaged as they drove by one of these cameras) can have every place they’ve been seen anywhere in the United States by one of these devices across any firm that has interconnect agreements including but certainly not limited to those run by Axon. The same is true for our Mayor, our Governor and every member of the County Commission, all of our Judges, all of our Sheriff Deputies, every member of their families and quite-literally everyone else who resides in or travels through our county.
Given access to that database anyone can determine with extremely high accuracy given enough such captures, which for most people will occur within days or weeks exactly where anyone lives, works, shops, worships and everyone who they associate with and exactly when they did so is now visible to anyone who contracts with Flock – or any other firm that has an interconnect agreement with them now or in the future....
Yes, it is Panopticon and yes, that will be useful to the Wrong Sorts of people--some of which are already in Government, and many of which are trying to get there.
No comments:
Post a Comment