The US is losing against China on surveillance
The short version: A YouTube essay argues the U.S. is adopting China-style surveillance infrastructure at home, a framing that should make Americans look harder at networks like Flock's ALPR cameras.
Our Take
The channel Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency makes a point that's easy to dismiss as alarmist until you look at what's actually been installed on American streets: a growing lattice of automated license plate readers, feeding a searchable database that local police, federal agencies, and private companies can all tap into. The video's framing of a 'race' with China misses that the real story isn't who's 'winning' — it's that the architecture of mass surveillance looks remarkably similar no matter which government is building it. Cameras that log everywhere you drive, timestamped and shared across jurisdictions, aren't a uniquely authoritarian import. They're being sold to American towns one city council vote at a time.
What makes Flock Safety's rollout notable is the absence of the debate that usually accompanies this kind of power. There's no national referendum on whether every car's movements should be trackable by default — just a sales pitch to police chiefs and HOAs, and a contract that quietly normalizes the idea that your travel history is fair game. Comparing ourselves favorably to China's surveillance state does nothing if the comparison point is a low bar crossed by our own hardware.
We'd rather people spend less time debating geopolitical rankings and more time finding out what's watching them right now. Check our camera map to see what's been deployed near you, and if you want to push back, our take-action page has concrete steps for raising it with local officials before the next camera goes up.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.