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Comment by amazingamazing | Hacker News Reader

Do you believe anyone with a surveillance camera should have the owners name and address published if in any way a “public” area is recorded?

I suppose we can start with all Blink, Ring and Nest Cams. Then we will continue with dash cam owners.

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You are equating installing personal security camera(s) to knowingly selling extra-judiciary mass-surveillance hardware and software to law enforcement. What's the point you're trying to make with this, exactly?

1. Installing a yard camera.

2. Building a mass surveillance dragnet and purpose-built tracking software and marketing it heavily to random local authorities.

Yep, totally the same thing...

I don't. But I do think the CEO of a company who sells spying as a service to cops should have a taste of his own medicine.

So much for privacy should be a human right lol.

Human rights are routinely revoked from those that impede on the rights of others. This is the premise that underpins prisons. Privacy being a human right still holds true.

From which I conclude that prisons are wrong, but also if I don't like someone I can revoke his rights and push him downstairs.

What is the morally correct approach to dealing with murderers?

Privacy absolutely should be a human right. But currently it isn't, and part of why is there is lots of money to be made with surveillance on ordinary people. And things will not change unless the people who exploit the privacy of other for monetary gain feel the effects of their privacy being violated.

Like the CEO of Flock.

Maybe it should be one. Until it is, I'm all for giving the powerful the same consideration they give me.

It sounds like you think Flock is just another home camera system, but it’s not and you could read up on that.

You should read up on police use of the cameras I mentioned

I think the point is these home systems are controlled centrally and can be used the same way flock can. I personally removed ring and installed my own system that doesnt export video out of concern with the governments lack of checks and balances anymore.

Scale matters. The “well technically an army of tens of millions of cops could achieve the same thing” argument is thoroughly unconvincing.

If they are sharing the footage with a dragnet, tracking people across the country, and giving access to unaccountable cops with a history of abusing that data?

Yes.

If they are using it to see when their amazon package got delivered, or for bog standard security purposes?

No.

Are you asking if a public registry of where you're being observed by security cameras is a good thing? Sure. I wouldn't mind that.

I have no issue banning ring and nest cams, actually. They hand the data to cops too

Context matters. Without it, very foolish things can be said.

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