Shreveport Residents Are Being Tracked and Cataloged By Private Camera Systems

Residents in the Shreveport area face a high probability of having their face scans collected, and their movements tracked across the region...actually across the entire nation. Private companies, including a major one named Flock, are capturing images along our local roadways, and are feeding them into artificial intelligence databases. They're using this information to help build citizen profiles...which may or may not be illegal. These systems build files based on geographical locations, and can mix in with a person's online actions, to track movements across the country...and they do it without consent.

The Shreveport region currently has over 100 Flock cameras installed and operating, according to the watchdog site Deflock.

If you want to see the exact details of the cameras in your neighborhood, you can use the interactive map at dontgetflocked.com

That means you run the risk of having your face, license, car, or various other elements of your private life scanned by a private company pretty much anywhere you go around here. That data is being fed into their AI database, and a profile of you has probably already been built.

Its been well documented that these cameras are not limited to the roadways either. Flock cameras are being installed in parks, playgrounds, schools, parking lots, and libraries. They aren't able to track you just along roadways, but they can work to track your movements through multiple different aspects of your life.

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But the violations of your privacy isn't the only concern with these cameras. Others might be hacking into these systems as well.

Major Security Issues And Employee Access To Private Feeds

As it has been demonstrated numerous times, these Flock cameras can be hacked and accessed by anyone online. The various reports have brought to light that people can purchase Flock login information online, and access cameras using the credentials.

One Georgia resident found distressing information that a Flock employee had been using the cameras to access a children gymnastics center. The videos recorded by these private companies, and are stored by the private company...meaning employees can watch hours of videos from libraries, schools, playgrounds, and private pools without the public knowing.

These systems are already being abused at the local level too. In Kansas, a police officer was using the surveillance system to track his estranged wife's every movement. Another officer in Ohio used the system to stalk his ex across the area. Errors with the the systems have caused police to pull guns on innocent people during traffic stops.

Don't think that these systems aren't being used to create profiles on citizens either...its not a conspiracy theory. Officers have already drawn their weapons of privacy activists with the assistance of the surveillance systems.

But even when these issues, and the research, is presented to councils or cities, the company Flock pushes back. After all, this is Flock's business model; total surveillance. Flock will present studies, anecdotes, and their own 'research' to city councils and municipal organizations during their sales pitch. But watchdog groups have investigated these Flock studies, and have found that they aren't actual scientific studies...they're actually just data samples put together by their own employees, with no independent review.

Citizens Push Back Against Camera Contracts At Council Meetings

Conversations taking place at municipal council meetings show specific examples of people exploiting these cameras...yet municipalities continue to approve contracts with the company. Despite public outcry and some canceled contracts over surveillance concerns, many cities keep putting up these cameras from coast to coast. Often, these are being pushed through without full disclosure to the public about what these systems are, what they do, and who can use them.

With companies now introducing artificial intelligence into the tracking, privacy experts say that this vast data collection can be used maliciously against Americans. By cross-referencing faces, license plates, and geographical data with online activities, these systems can be used to create surveillance databases of citizens who can be scrutinized for their personal opinions, race, religion, friendships, or political beliefs.

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The opposition to these cameras seems to be one of the few issues facing citizens today that brings together people from all political sides to oppose the use of these cameras.

Well, except for elected officials. Because it seems like elected officials at the local, state, and national level only know how to approve this surveillance system. In fact, some elected officials are satisfied with just approving them, they're now looking at ways to build special protections for them. So even if their staff wants to download all of the kids pool videos for themselves, the public can't do anything.