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| Flock Nova |
Picture this: You're driving home, minding your own business, when a cop somewhere decides to "check you out." No crime suspected—just curiosity. Boom. They punch your phone number or license plate into Flock NOVA, and suddenly your app usage, adult site visits, crypto wallet pings, and cross-country road trips light up like a Christmas tree. No judge, no warrant, just "search once, see everything." Flock NovaThat's the wild claim from Dr. Jon Padfield's eye-opening YouTube video, unpacking Flock Safety's shiny new AI platform. Flock started with license plate readers (LPRs) dotting neighborhoods, snapping plates to bust car thieves and kidnappers. Smart, right? But NOVA cranks it to 11. Officially, it's a "public safety data platform" mashing LPR data, police records (RMS/CAD), jail logs, body cams, and open-source intel into one dashboard. Cops get instant leads: vehicle paths, suspect links, even multi-state crime patterns. Flock hypes it as a crime-busting wizard—faster arrests, safer streets.
But here's the creepy twist from security researcher Josh Michael, featured in the vid. He demoed NOVA allegedly slurping "dark document" searches for emails, IPs, SSNs, Discord handles, and—get this—Mobile Advertising IDs (MAIDs). Those are sneaky trackers on your phone linking apps, locations, and browsing. AI could de-anonymize you by spotting your nightly sleep spot or work routine. One screenshot? Counts of visits to sketchy sites. Default search? A 1,500-mile radius smack in America's heartland—coast to coast.
Future? Buckle up. Flock's upgrading every LPR to video cams, per their patent for a "dynamic surveillance network." NOVA could fuse with drones, 911 audio, and broker data, painting your digital soul. Cops solve cases quicker, sure—but "fishing expeditions" turn innocents into suspects. Remember Tennessee's 2,547 sober DUI arrests? Or cops busted stalking exes with Flock cams? Misuse is real. FBI queried intel databases 278,000 times improperly.
Padfield nails it: This flips the Fourth Amendment. Warrants demand probable cause first; NOVA says "search now, justify later." No public vote, just quiet rollouts. Flock swears CJIS-compliant logs and agency controls, but researchers flag vulns near military bases—China hackers drooling?
Fun fact: Flock's CEO emailed "never hacked—period." Yet researchers found bugs sans cracking in. Titanic sailed fine... till it didn't.
Bottom line? NOVA fights crime but risks a surveillance dystopia. Demand warrants, transparency. Watch the vid—then yell in comments. Are we safer, or just watched?
But here's the creepy twist from security researcher Josh Michael, featured in the vid. He demoed NOVA allegedly slurping "dark document" searches for emails, IPs, SSNs, Discord handles, and—get this—Mobile Advertising IDs (MAIDs). Those are sneaky trackers on your phone linking apps, locations, and browsing. AI could de-anonymize you by spotting your nightly sleep spot or work routine. One screenshot? Counts of visits to sketchy sites. Default search? A 1,500-mile radius smack in America's heartland—coast to coast.
Future? Buckle up. Flock's upgrading every LPR to video cams, per their patent for a "dynamic surveillance network." NOVA could fuse with drones, 911 audio, and broker data, painting your digital soul. Cops solve cases quicker, sure—but "fishing expeditions" turn innocents into suspects. Remember Tennessee's 2,547 sober DUI arrests? Or cops busted stalking exes with Flock cams? Misuse is real. FBI queried intel databases 278,000 times improperly.
Padfield nails it: This flips the Fourth Amendment. Warrants demand probable cause first; NOVA says "search now, justify later." No public vote, just quiet rollouts. Flock swears CJIS-compliant logs and agency controls, but researchers flag vulns near military bases—China hackers drooling?
Fun fact: Flock's CEO emailed "never hacked—period." Yet researchers found bugs sans cracking in. Titanic sailed fine... till it didn't.
Bottom line? NOVA fights crime but risks a surveillance dystopia. Demand warrants, transparency. Watch the vid—then yell in comments. Are we safer, or just watched?
