Build your own secure router to avoid spyware

Our Take

Credit to the Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency channel for digging into router-level privacy — locking down firmware and refusing to trust whatever black-box hardware your ISP hands you is a solid instinct. Most consumer routers phone home, leak metadata, and come preloaded with telemetry you never agreed to. Building or flashing your own is a legitimate way to claw back a slice of control over your home network.

But here's the catch: no amount of router hardening touches the surveillance that happens the moment you back out of your driveway. Flock Safety cameras and other ALPR systems don't care how encrypted your home traffic is — they log your plate, location, and timestamp on public roads, often dozens of times a day, and feed it into databases shared well beyond your town. Digital privacy at home and physical privacy on the street are two different fights, and the second one is expanding faster with far less public scrutiny.

If you're serious about pushing back on one, don't ignore the other. Check our camera map to see what's tracking your routes, and head to take action for ways to push your local council or police department to answer for it.