Highlights from Who's Watching? Safeguarding our Privacy- Indivisible Palo Alto+ Democracy Forum

Our Take

Credit to Matt Schlegel and Indivisible Palo Alto Plus for pulling together a panel that actually knows what it's talking about. When Brian Hofer calls it an "upside-down world" that the famously progressive Bay Area is bankrolling mass surveillance through Flock Safety cameras, he's naming the exact contradiction we keep running into: cities that would never tolerate a stop-and-frisk program are quietly wiring their streets with automated plate readers that log every car, every trip, every day.

Cindy Cohn's point about losing "the ability to say no" is the heart of it. Flock doesn't show up at a city council meeting asking permission in good faith — it shows up with a sales pitch, a grant, a free trial, and by the time residents learn what's happening, the cameras are already up and the data is already flowing to who-knows-how-many other agencies. Hofer's call to "silo data" and Reem Suleiman's warning about data sharing get at the real danger: it's not one camera, it's a national network that local police chiefs don't fully control and most city councils never audited.

This is exactly the fight DeFlock The USA exists for. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your block, and if you want to push back before your city signs another Flock contract, our take-action page has the tools to start.