Flock Safety just pulled the plug on its "distress detection" audio pilot program. That was the setup with microphones listening in public spaces for sounds of screaming. The company spun it as listening to community feedback. We've all heard that tune before, usually when a project starts hitting the rocks and people get loud.
Civil liberties groups, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, weren't buying the good intentions. They kept hammering on the mass surveillance angle. That kind of system, always on, always listening, just grinds away at what's left of private life in public. Even with this specific pilot program off the books, Flock still has a massive grid of these devices out there. Thousands of audio devices and cameras are already installed nationwide. They are still whirring away, still taking it all in. That’s the real story, the constant churn of data going into somebody else's big server farm. It never really stops.
Here's the rundown: * The cancelled pilot program specifically used microphones to detect screaming in public. * The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that such audio devices enable mass surveillance. * Flock Safety maintains a large network of cameras and microphones already active across the US, separate from this pilot.