The Hidden Eye in Your Phone (Part 2). #DigitalPrivacy #EyeTracking #Meta
The short version: Mading Thok's video on phone eye-tracking and app faceprinting is a reminder that surveillance isn't just in the sky or on the street — it's in your pocket.
Our Take
Mading Thok's two-part series digs into something most of us never think about: whether the camera staring back at us while we scroll is doing more than just sitting there. We can't verify every technical claim about infrared eye-tracking or exactly what TikTok and Instagram do with facial data behind the scenes — and neither should you take it as gospel without doing your own digging — but the broader point lands. Platforms built on attention and data extraction have every incentive to know exactly where your eyes go, what makes you pause, and what makes you scroll past.
This matters to us because it's the same logic that powers the license plate reader network we track. Whether it's a camera on a pole logging your car's movements or a front-facing lens logging your gaze, the business model is identical: capture behavior at scale, store it indefinitely, and treat consent as an afterthought. Flock Safety's ALPR cameras and Meta's in-app browsers are different technologies solving the same problem for their owners — how do we extract the most data from people who didn't ask for it and often don't know it's happening.
If a video about your phone's front camera makes you uneasy, that unease is worth carrying outside, too. Check our map to see how many ALPR cameras are already watching your commute, and head to take-action if you want to push back on the surveillance you can actually see parked on a pole.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Mading Thok, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.