You can't escape surveillance: from dog teats to lame jokes, they watch it all

Most birds of prey are solitary to avoid competition for food. In the tech world, the danger can also come from Flocks.

We’ve been given a wheel, and keep running like crazy to figure out just how to use it. Some ways we’re using the wheel of AI are counterproductive, and, in cases, causing more work and panic.

This past week, Cybernews journalists focused on a few rather controversial and straightforward crazy developments in the technology world.

It’s wild how disconnected these tech people are from normal human behavior.

This quote by one Redditor reacting to Sam Altman’s ChatGPT parenting idea perfectly sums it all up.

Altman suggested feeding ChatGPT family data and then turning it into a podcast to better understand your kids’ lives. It’s so comically sad, I am quite sure there’s a Hollywood comedy based on this premise in the works.

“What if you just talked to your children?” American animator Alex Hirsch asked. His comments overshadowed the popularity of the original post.

But we can agree it’s not easy to talk to kids. Or students. In one viral story that has been making rounds yet again, a teacher got arrested for making a bad joke about shooting a student. No matter how distasteful or simply not funny the joke was, it was supposed to be private as the teacher sent a “should I shoot him" message with a gun emoji to her friends via a private Snap message.

It turns out that her message was flagged by Snap and sent to the FBI. As per its latest transparency report, Snap has cracked down on nearly 200,000 cases of threats and violence.

The Big Apple has also been making headlines recently with its Sensitive Content Warning system. While the idea behind it seems really useful, as it protects unsuspecting users from receiving unsolicited and unwanted pictures, it also raises serious privacy concerns, or simply gives us a good laugh.

In one recent viral case, Apple’s system flagged an iMessage video of a dog receiving belly rubs as potential nudity.

“Don’t worry, I’m not tracking you or some weird stalker shit,” you could say if caught staring at some dog’s teats online. But this is actually a real quote by a police chief in Georgia who abused the Flock camera network to search for his ex-partner’s vehicle. He committed suicide before the trial charging him with stalking and harassment even took place.

But unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. And even when Flock cameras are not misused by those with access to them, including law enforcement, they still raise crucial questions about surveillance and privacy.

Have thoughts about this topic? Others do, too. Join them in the discussion.

Flock said it supported more than 1 million criminal cases and helped locate over 10,000 missing people last year. Flock markets itself as an automated license plate reader (ALPR) company and says it doesn’t use facial recognition or biometric data.

However, knowing the location of an owner’s car can be used to deduce sensitive information such as religious beliefs, personal relationships, doctor’s appointments, and so on. Furthermore, stills captured by the camera can include passersby, and therefore, expose more innocent people.

Be it a cannabis dispensary blocking the view for a mandatory Flock camera or a local politician dealing with Flocks “the American way,” as CNN aptly put it, saying that Flock cameras are getting mobbed.