Presumably there are people that have access to it. And if you are demoing software that connects to cameras, then someone gave the sales guy access to those cameras.
I’m also assuming those probably weren’t the only cameras…
So there are people sitting in cubicles in various companies/orgs that flock sells the access to and they are watching your children on a screen.
Usually the government is trying to wrap the spying/privacy breaches by "save the children", but this time if you want to save your children from some older dude watching them on a screen, you actually have to be against this privacy nightmare.
>“The city of Dunwoody is one city in our demo partner program,” a Flock spokesperson told 404 Media. “The cities involved in this program have authorized select Flock employees to demonstrate new products and features as we develop them in partnership with the city.
the two things i still dont understand are:
1) why is there not a dedicated demo environment for demos, like practically every other software? i cant think of any reason why they need live data for a demonstration. (this might be addressed in the article, but the paragraph where it looks like it might be mentioned is also where the article is cut off)
2) is the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MCJCCA) city-owned? if not, the city should not be able to give permission to use the cameras. if so, was the MJCCA notified that the cameras would be used for demo purposes? were the parents notified?
The camera's main selling point is instilling fear: better not misbehave, because Big Brother is watching. The creepier it is, the easier it is to sell to powerful people looking for invasive control.
They're appealing to entities that have surveillance and voyeuristic fetishes, showing that you can ubiquitously invade privacy in real-time, even in spaces society considers sensitive, is a feature worth demonstrating if you want to get contracts from psychopaths.
Dunwoody asked the JCC for camera access in case of live shooter events but then used it for many other reasons.
“ In September 2024, Dunwoody PD Major Patrick Krieg requested access to the private securiy cameras at a community center on behalf of the department. When the community center pushed back and demanded to know what the access would be used for, Krieg was unambiguous: “This is solely for real-time critical incident response.” The community center agreed to share their cameras, including cameras in gymnastics rooms, pools, and fitness studios, with Dunwoody PD for emergencies”
Isolated information isn't a problem. If it takes effort to access information then mass information abuse doesn't scale, it is free of cost, and consequence, access that is the issue here. Flock is attempting to destroy barriers to access around real time surveillance. There is a clear distinction between someone having a business surveillance system that points at the street that the police can get access to with some sort of device specific request and no-requirement needed brows the world access that Flock is pushing. This is different. This is evil.
What other companies are pushing into this space with similar offerings, but flying under the radar compared to all the bad press Flock has been getting?
The incentives of panopticon company seem peversly aligned to bring out the worst in humanity and fearmonger politicisns into endless societsl scaffolding.
This is massively underplaying what happened. From the original source:
> [Randy Gluck - Flock Growth/Strategy] clicked through 3 private cameras at the JCC before he settled on JCC camera ‘Main Pool Right’. It was over 3 hours later before his next view on traffic cameras.
> [Bob Carter - Flock VP of Strategic Relations and BD] also has some interesting searches. On September 30th, 2025 - Bob looked at just one camera. This camera is in the gymnastics room of the JCC.
> [James Harding] The 1/7 session is the more notable one. He manually clicked through every JCC baseball field camera one per second, then paused 16 seconds before hitting Fitness, then Front Pool(1), Front Pool(2), Front Pool(3) — with 4-7 second pauses between each pool camera. Then after browsing other cameras, came back to Holding Cell 1 and 2, then Brook Run Playground 4 times over 33 seconds, then went back to Fitness again 12 minutes later. [...] his saved dashboard includes both holding cells and all three pool cameras, which is an unusual set of cameras to keep on a monitoring dashboard.
> [Yoruel Sanguillen] was manually clicking through JCC cameras one per second — baseball fields, cafe, camp cameras, clock tower — then hit Fitline Desk and paused 58 seconds. Moved to Front Pool(1) and paused 47 seconds. Then FitLine Weight, Fitness, paused 72 seconds, then Fitness North Exit and rapidly through all three Front Pool cameras in 3 seconds before moving to Guard House.
> [Kayce Lowe] came back on 2/14 - her first views were Gymnastics M/H front view left, Fitness, Gymnastics, Fitline Hall, FitLine Weight. She picked up exactly where she left off.
This reads like Flock employees are individually using the camera system to watch people in sensitive settings.
I'm unsure why 404 media is portraying this as related to a demo, it's seems like these are individuals acting independently.
26 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 64.4 ms ] thread[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784045
Why is the camera there in the first place??
Presumably there are people that have access to it. And if you are demoing software that connects to cameras, then someone gave the sales guy access to those cameras.
I’m also assuming those probably weren’t the only cameras…
Could also be AI.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47772012
Usually the government is trying to wrap the spying/privacy breaches by "save the children", but this time if you want to save your children from some older dude watching them on a screen, you actually have to be against this privacy nightmare.
the two things i still dont understand are:
1) why is there not a dedicated demo environment for demos, like practically every other software? i cant think of any reason why they need live data for a demonstration. (this might be addressed in the article, but the paragraph where it looks like it might be mentioned is also where the article is cut off)
2) is the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta (MCJCCA) city-owned? if not, the city should not be able to give permission to use the cameras. if so, was the MJCCA notified that the cameras would be used for demo purposes? were the parents notified?
“ In September 2024, Dunwoody PD Major Patrick Krieg requested access to the private securiy cameras at a community center on behalf of the department. When the community center pushed back and demanded to know what the access would be used for, Krieg was unambiguous: “This is solely for real-time critical incident response.” The community center agreed to share their cameras, including cameras in gymnastics rooms, pools, and fitness studios, with Dunwoody PD for emergencies”
https://substack.com/home/post/p-196010541
> City Learns Flock (YC S17) Accessed Cameras in Children's Gymnastics Room as a Sales Demo
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47784045
> [Randy Gluck - Flock Growth/Strategy] clicked through 3 private cameras at the JCC before he settled on JCC camera ‘Main Pool Right’. It was over 3 hours later before his next view on traffic cameras.
> [Bob Carter - Flock VP of Strategic Relations and BD] also has some interesting searches. On September 30th, 2025 - Bob looked at just one camera. This camera is in the gymnastics room of the JCC.
> [James Harding] The 1/7 session is the more notable one. He manually clicked through every JCC baseball field camera one per second, then paused 16 seconds before hitting Fitness, then Front Pool(1), Front Pool(2), Front Pool(3) — with 4-7 second pauses between each pool camera. Then after browsing other cameras, came back to Holding Cell 1 and 2, then Brook Run Playground 4 times over 33 seconds, then went back to Fitness again 12 minutes later. [...] his saved dashboard includes both holding cells and all three pool cameras, which is an unusual set of cameras to keep on a monitoring dashboard.
> [Yoruel Sanguillen] was manually clicking through JCC cameras one per second — baseball fields, cafe, camp cameras, clock tower — then hit Fitline Desk and paused 58 seconds. Moved to Front Pool(1) and paused 47 seconds. Then FitLine Weight, Fitness, paused 72 seconds, then Fitness North Exit and rapidly through all three Front Pool cameras in 3 seconds before moving to Guard House.
> [Kayce Lowe] came back on 2/14 - her first views were Gymnastics M/H front view left, Fitness, Gymnastics, Fitline Hall, FitLine Weight. She picked up exactly where she left off.
This reads like Flock employees are individually using the camera system to watch people in sensitive settings.
I'm unsure why 404 media is portraying this as related to a demo, it's seems like these are individuals acting independently.