আপনাকে কতগুলো ক্যামেরা দেখছে? #flocksafety #aisurveillance #dataprivacy

Our Take

We don't speak Bengali fluently enough to parse every word of this clip from Jatiyo Arthoniti, a channel that usually covers politics and economics, but the title cuts through the language barrier: "How many cameras are watching you?" That a channel focused on national economic affairs is now tagging its content #flocksafety and #aisurveillance tells you something important — this isn't just an American story anymore. The automated license plate reader network that started as a hometown crime-fighting tool has become a case study in creeping surveillance infrastructure that people around the world are starting to notice and question.

We can't vouch for every claim in a video we can't fully translate, but the instinct behind it is exactly right. Camera networks like Flock's don't stop at state lines, and the data-sharing agreements between agencies don't respect borders either. When a channel halfway around the world is asking "how many cameras see you," it's a reminder that the normalization of mass license plate tracking is a global pattern, not a local quirk — and that scrutiny needs to be just as widespread.

Credit to Jatiyo Arthoniti for putting this question in front of a new audience. If you're wondering how many cameras are actually watching you right here at home, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit our take-action page if you want to push back.