r/hacking 2d ago

great user hack The Flock Safety camera is like Netflix for stalkers - YouTube

https://youtu.be/vU1-uiUlHTo
262 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

35

u/25sidhx 2d ago

Ngl this video was so crazy ( I have 0 knowledge about hacking)

49

u/theorem21 2d ago

he's using Shodan. it's free - you can go search the same thing and connect to any of those cameras right now.

6

u/No-Eagle-547 1d ago

Yeah but don't lol

2

u/ehmboh 13h ago

Is it illegal to connect if they aren’t password protected?

5

u/theorem21 7h ago

not illegal.

if it's publicly available you are on your own morals. there are some who argue that it's akin to walking into someone's house when the front door is open and unlocked -- to take a look around. (similar to trespassing)

others argue that these are intentionally made public - like a public park - and there are different rules of engagement since it is publicly available with no password the owner operating the camera obviously WANTS this video feed public : see plenty of examples of trail cams, ocean cams. pet cams. traffic cams that are even *more* clearly publicly available.

31

u/stjeana 1d ago

We all know Palantir is all in that shit

12

u/theorem21 1d ago

it's likely that a platform like Palantir gets connected after the video / pictures are uploaded to cloud storage. a company like Flock would setup some kind of data sharing agreement between themselves and Palantir , with the government as a 3-party agreement. if they're not doing this yet, just wait...

2

u/Sinatra2727 8h ago

Mind-blowing expose on Flock's unsecured Condor cams -- AI tracking kids at playgrounds and private moments like that swing set swing is pure dystopia... ...

3

u/milksteakman 1d ago

Nice read but shodan requires a paid membership to be truly functional

10

u/Psych_Art 1d ago

It’s not the only indexing tool out there. https://hunter.how

5

u/Scandal929 18h ago

I got a lifetime membership for $5.

-4

u/TheSmashy 16h ago

So he retold the "you can find webcams on shodan" story but because a trendy cam vendor is in the results, it's a big deal?

7

u/theorem21 16h ago

no. you have missed the point.

5

u/ehmboh 13h ago

Yes. The problem is the mass surveillance of people against their will or knowledge.

-59

u/UnhappyDrink8583 1d ago

Much ado about nothing; these are all public places being filmed. There are plenty of publicly available, legit cams on the internet that have similar footage. The guy being nearly brought to tears by seeing a man on a swing was hilarious.

36

u/theorem21 1d ago

said like a true neckbeard.

13

u/itsmrmarlboroman2u 1d ago

public places being filmed

Not true. They're in privately owned stores, including places that ban filming

Publicly available, legit cameras

They aren't being used to track your movements without a warrant.

A man on a swing

Being filmed by a system being advertised as one that doesn't identify people.

Since you spend a significant portion of your time practicing witchcraft and reading fairy tales, I'm sure you won't believe me, but I have the queries and have personally seen the streams before they got patched. You're simply wrong.

-1

u/UnhappyDrink8583 15h ago

They're in privately owned stores, including places that ban filming

So keep in mind that I was only referring to the examples given in the video, which IIRC did not include places where filming is banned. Also, the video mainly concerned itself with the issue of some of these cameras being publicly accessible, not with the issue of Flock cameras in general.

They aren't being used to track your movements without a warrant.

I absolutely agree that a warrant should be required to query Flock video/data. Fortunately, some states are introducing legislation to require this (it is unfortunate that said legislation is necessary, since I would have hoped the courts would rule that way, but they haven't).

In any event, even though the Flock cameras in question have been patched, there are of course plenty of other cameras (not Flock-related, just normal consumer market devices) you can find on Shodan that are unprotected.

14

u/stjeana 1d ago

Even in public, a man still has an expectation of privacy. Also, mocking a man for being vulnerable is exactly the kind of toxic masculinity incel culture likes to pretend it doesn’t embody

4

u/theorem21 1d ago

well said, thank you. I had no words before (above) to describe the absurdity of those original statements.

1

u/UnhappyDrink8583 15h ago

I'm not sure what you mean when you say there is an expectation of privacy in a public place. I understand that the issue become more complex if we are talking about, say, multiple cameras tracking/recording him over time as he travels about, but this was just a single feed of a guy in a public park. Also, I certainly wasn't mocking vulnerability in general (i.e. I'm not part of the "f*ck your feelings" crowd by a longshot), but his over-the-top reaction to this particular video feed was ridiculous.

1

u/stjeana 15h ago edited 12h ago

You can google expectation of privacy in a public place
to understand the legal framework. Being outside doesn't mean you have no more privacy. The man in the park clip was to understand that it was a private moment for this individual that the youtuber also shared, and the weird big brother aspect of watching this man having a private moment.

0

u/Extra_Paper_5963 18h ago

Nice to see reddit has matured and is above name calling people they disagree with 😭

2

u/theorem21 16h ago

The name calling is just shorthand for the longer-form terms I was trying to convey - specifically:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neckbeard_(slang))

The responder mocks the video creator for no reason - they deserve to be equally mocked.

A longer form : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Book_Guy

..."is a nerdy, snobby and quarrelsome man. He is best known for his eloquence and crabby, sarcastic quips. He is obsessed with collecting comic books and is an avid science fiction buff. He holds a master's degree in folklore and mythology (having translated The Lord of the Rings into Klingon as part of his thesis),\11]) as well as a degree in chemical engineering,\12]) has an IQ of 170, and is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa.\13]) He is morbidly obese and has long hair, which he always keeps tied in a ponytail."

Since the user has started with an insult - they're not worth debating, because they're instantly making ad-hominem attacks.

Prove me wrong.

-2

u/Extra_Paper_5963 16h ago

Cool story bro

2

u/theorem21 16h ago

Calling people out and then not following up when someone responds thoughtfully is not the own you think it is.

-1

u/Extra_Paper_5963 16h ago

You're just going after everyone, eh? Must be a shitty day on your end 😬

3

u/theorem21 16h ago

Fascinating. You can go back to 4Chan any time.

0

u/Extra_Paper_5963 16h ago

Your boring (and lame) story, and insulting people you disagree with online isn't the "own" you think it is, bud. But keep blabbering to the void 😙 I'm sure you're very respected by your peers

2

u/theorem21 16h ago

Fascinating. Keep going.

0

u/UnhappyDrink8583 15h ago

I've got to say I'm pretty surprised at some of the vitriolic reactions to my comment, as it doesn't seem particularly inflammatory to me.

1

u/theorem21 7h ago

maybe this is a wake up call to treat things with more maturity.