this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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Technology

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105
AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents (futurism.com)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Quexotic@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
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Just when I thought I couldn't have a lower opinion of flock.

What does it take to become the most successful AI surveillance company in 2025? If you’re anything like Flock, the startup selling automatic license plate readers and facial recognition tech to cops, you don’t really need much AI at all — just an army of sweatshop workers in the global south.

Bombshell new reporting from 404 Media found that Flock, which has its cameras in thousands of US communities, has been outsourcing its AI to gig workers located in the Philippines.

After accessing a cache of exposed data, 404 found documents related to annotating Flock footage, a process sometimes called “AI training.” Workers were tasked with jobs include categorizing vehicles by color, make, and model, transcribing license plates, and labeling various audio clips from car wrecks.

In US towns and cities, Flock cameras maintained by local businesses and municipal agencies form centralized surveillance networks for local police. They constantly scan for car license plates, as well as pedestrians, who are categorized based on their clothing, and possibly by factors like gender and race.

http://archive.today/VtX5G

Semi-related: https://deflock.me/

top 13 comments
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[–] Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I kneW it would be flock just from the headline.

We fucked up real and ended up in the stupidest timeline.

[–] curiousaur@reddthat.com 11 points 3 days ago (3 children)

They are generating the training data. This is a manual task. It's what google has been having us do in the captchas for years. This is a non-article.

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

They're foreign citizens being hired by us police departments to spy on americans.

So the money isn't even coming back to us. The eyes on us could be anyone.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago

Considering what they call security, lack of two-factor off and API keys stored in public...

IIRC, there's evidence of their compromise, between actual intrusions and their law enforcement accounts being for sale online.

Yes. Anyone.

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 days ago

I just want yo emphasize: there's a group pillaging local tax money to pay foreign mercenaries to surveil us and does not live in our communities, menaces us with guns, walks around armored, attacks you on horseback if you speak up

Police are invaders. Straight up foreign invaders.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 6 points 3 days ago

Oh, I was focused on the sweatshop part, ya know, de facto slave labor? I didn't think of it that way. Thanks for the different perspective.

[–] PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It's also what HR has been doing for years when they made you attach your CV and THEN type in all the data separately when applying for a job.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 3 days ago

I don't think that's their main purpose. Parsing resumes is a major challenge because basically every one of them has different formatting.

Having you enter the information is for candidate screening by HR, and the resume is for the hiring manager to use in the interview.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Funny thing is that ANPR is a solved issue that you can literally run on-device with minimal training. As in, you can literally run it on a $30 WiFi camera. With existing open models.

Facial recognition is a bit more tricky but there are open AI models that translate facial data to what is essentially a hash that can be compared to other faces with high precision, and that too can run on the same hardware.

Hell, my cheap $100 smart doorbell has built in facial recognition that doesn't require any cloud connection or such. All on-device.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] fonix232@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

Okay I suspected these shitcams to be bad... but not this bad. Wow.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh, it always gets worse with these surveillance companies. Also good to bear in mind this is the tip of the iceberg.

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 2 points 3 days ago

That's correct. There is positive movement on this though, they're being seen as national security risks due to their laughable security. https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/17/ben-jordan-exposes-severe-security-vulnerabilities-in-flock-surveillance-cameras/