Privacy advocates should learn from vegans
The short version: The Hated One argues privacy advocates need the evangelizing energy of vegans, naming surveillance giants loudly instead of staying politely quiet.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: The Hated One's bit (clipped here by Verified Privacy VPN) lands on something a lot of us in the ALPR-watchdog world already know in our bones. Being the person who brings up surveillance at a dinner party is socially costly, so most people don't. Vegans figured out decades ago that discomfort is the price of actually changing norms, and the comparison is funnier because it's true — nobody wants to be That Guy, but silence is exactly how companies like Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple keep expanding their reach without pushback.
This matters directly to Flock Safety and the ALPR dragnet quietly multiplying on street corners across the country. These systems thrive on the same social dynamic: neighbors assume someone else is watching the watchers, city councils assume no one's paying attention, and the cameras just keep going up. Naming names, loudly and specifically, is step one. Knowing where the cameras actually are is step two.
If this clip got you thinking about who's tracking you and how, don't stop at the video. Check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and head to our take-action page if you want to do more than grumble at the next barbecue.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Verified Privacy VPN (vp.net), published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.