The Slow Door Trick at FIFA World Cup #privacy #privacytips #fifaworldcup2026

Our Take

Mading Thok's breakdown of the "slow door trick" at FIFA World Cup checkpoints names something we see constantly in the ALPR world: surveillance sold as a choice that's actually a choice architecture built to punish you for choosing privacy. A scan line that takes ten seconds versus an opt-out line that takes twenty minutes isn't optional tech — it's a tax on dignity, and most people will pay it just to get to their seat on time.

This is the same playbook Flock Safety and its law enforcement partners use when they call ALPR networks "voluntary" for the cities and HOAs that install them, while making it nearly impossible for residents to find out the cameras exist, let alone opt out of having their movements logged. Friction is the feature. If a system needs to make the privacy-respecting path painful, that tells you everything about how confident they are people would choose it freely.

Stadiums are temporary chokepoints; the camera networks blanketing our streets are permanent ones. If you want to see how many of those "optional" eyes are already watching your daily commute, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on the infrastructure normalizing all of this, our take-action page has concrete next steps.