You Know About Flock Cameras, Meet Nema Nodes: They Turn Streetlights Into A Surveillance Network
Standardized NEMA sockets let municipalities add cameras and air sensors to existing poles with no public vote or new hardware
https://www.gadgetreview.com/you-know-about-flock-cameras-meet-nema-nodes-they-turn-streetlights-into-a-surveillance-networkOpen linkView original on piefed.social
26 replies
Cameras everywhere! The whole planet is now a surveillance state! But socialism is the real threat....
Democracy and freedom are the real threats
So like. Outlets?
I can't tell if this is satire, ragebait, or simple attempts at normalizing mass surveillance.
https://www.gadgetreview.com/you-know-about-flock-cameras-meet-nema-nodes-they-turn-streetlights-into-a-surveillance-network
You know what else is a "standardized NEMA socket"? Literally all the outlets in your house. NEMA 5-15p. This is like freaking out that they're putting electrical outlets inside buildings because, in theory, someone could plug a surveillance camera into one.
Look at this guy with his 5-15s. Half the ones in my house are still 1-15.
So you're saying it's basically USB? A camera can be plugged into a USB socket, should we be scared of them?
If your city council wants to turn your city into a surveillance state, they'll do it regardless of which technology enables it. Pay attention to local politics, elect people opposed to surveillance and those who would support laws preventing it. Don't get paranoid about open standards that make your city more efficient.
We should push back against all of it
I don't think paranoia about the connection standard was the goal here. It seems more likely to me they wanted to increase awareness of the fact there are FAR less obvious (and absurdly easy) ways for governments to spy on citizens than Flock's installations.
Even if the goals of the government for installing such hardware are above board, they aren't known for being the most mindful of security so these systems can often be hacked and abused by malicious entities. It's something that really does need well thought out limitations set.
The issue is that they can do it without anyone knowing, it has no approval or denial process involved. You hear about flock now, but this is a new technology that most aren't looking at and isn't regulated.
If there was a hidden, little-discussed USB port at the top of every streetlight, that might be a cause for concern, yes
99% of just about everything is hidden and little-discussed by this metric. That doesn't make it concerning, it just makes it information you don't know yet.
It's concerning for many of the reasons that Flock cameras are concerning. If you don't understand this, I don't know how you ended up on this community
IANAL and you should do your own research, but my understanding of the dangers of something like a Flock camera is that it's a private company who surveils citizens and compiles the data into something that law enforcement can purchase without a warrant, effectively circumventing Americans' 4th amendment rights. In this case, it's a city device that can host a camera. I believe that the city would not be able to perform warrantless mass surveilence using these devices the same way that a private company can. I believe it's similar to those cameras on traffic signals that monitor the performance of the intersection but not perform ALPR data collection. It's a subtle but important difference.
I may have no idea what I'm talking about also, so if you are an authority on these matters or someone with industry knowledge, please correct me.
You are telling people to do there own research whwn you clearly haven't dome much research
as someone that installs streetlights, I have never come across one of these. they are simply photocells. also the only opening in the housing points north, which only allows possible surveillance in one direction.
i wouldn't worry about this for now.
that being said, my country is behind most others as far as surveillance goes
By north you mean up, I assume.
And while that doesn't mean they can't install a camera, it does mean it would be the worst possible orientation. It would have to be a big ball on top or an assembly that came down underneath the lamp to point the camera at the ground.
You could also plug in a non-camera sensor, like a Stingray cell phone snooper. Those are omnidirectional.
But the bottom line is "you can plug stuff into power outlets", which is not really a story.
no. by north I mean north. the direction in which sunlight most quickly dissipates in the northern hemisphere. this allows streetlights to turn on mid-dusk instead of pure darkness
if I meant up I would say up. I've handled, repaired, and inspected thousands of these devices and am very familiar with their function. none of them contain cameras or other surveillance hardware. the day I see otherwise is the day I share that information as broadly as possible, and also the day I start sabotaging.
I'm saying that this is not a real threat to personal privacy.
Oh I see. Are they rotated? I assumed there was a socket on top that the bulb I can see from the ground plugs into.
yes they are rotated to point them north. that's a procedural step of installing them
of course there's a socket. it contains a line (energized) terminal, a neutral terminal, and a control terminal.
what's your point?
The article is about the sockets. You said the only opening in the housing points north, so you can see why I thought you were talking about the lamp housing and not the photocell housing.
that makes no sense. this is about the nema socket
the lamp is not plugged into the nema socket. the article specifically says that the photocell is what's connected to the nema socket
I want to get of Onii-san's
cockride.Ironically, reads like AI and i counted like 8 or 9 emdashes in that tiny article.
I'm on the fence about the reputability of this site, but besides the dashes, there don't seem to be any major red flags.