Slow and Steady

Hey so I'm not sure if your comments are the right place, or if this info is of any use to you, but I'm in Canada (Southern Ontario specifically) and have been looking around Deflock since there may or may not be ALPRs getting installed quietly within my province, at least that's what the database told me. I went out to West Lincoln a few weeks back and thought I'd confirm one of these reports in person... and there was nothing there. And then two days ago the city I live in had logs of two Neology cameras... which were then pulled as well, likely the same case. It seems there's been a problem of people either getting false positives via whatever identification tools they're using, or outright making false reports, within Canada at least. Thankfully these are taken off Deflock after a while, but it still means there's a hole in their moderation or ID'ing process that I think needs to be called attention to, because this is potentially stuff that can be used by legislators or surveillance companies to try and kill the credibility of any grassroots anti-surveillance movement in the future. Love your videos by the way, they've inspired me to start doing my own investigative research while cutting big tech out of my own life.

I joined your Patreon for you to keep doing what you are doing. Seems from reading everyone's comments that we all share this sentiment. The "reward" is that you get to keep going. My wife went from the ACLU to government work, so the ethical predicament is familiar to me. I trust your instincts and I hope you do too. Someone else mentioned being careful, and that's the one bit I'd agree with. There are ways to be courteous and cordial without being too vulnerable or compromised. You have the personality type to navigate those thick waters. I appreciate you be willing to do so. It's not easy.

Keep it up!

I've been following you since the synth days. I love you even more now. You don't have to cater to the community of viewers. When you put your passion behind something, we all feel it.

So I sit. Still in the morning air. Flock is just the flower on a weed. Yes beheading the flower helps, and feels great. But it doesn't kill the weed. We need to dig and pull out the weed, roots and all. "I have met many people that see trees, talk about trees, categorize trees, but have no idea what a Forest is." Answer? Continue. Persevere. Maintain. Cook a meal for others. Read a book to a child. Help an elder. Make Music.

Came for the VST plugin reviews, stayed for the long-form documentaries and investigative journalism that rival the best work of PBS Frontline and ProPublica. The best part of your work is that you don't rush things, and put quality over quantity.

who are the fuck boys?

Benn, thank you for all the work you’ve put in this beautiful fight against surveillance. It was looking quixotic but it now looks more like you and your friends might at least cut one head off of the hydra. I wasn’t expecting it but there’s been a groundswell of subversion against flock and - in my chronology - it all stems from your ground work. So much gratitude. Heroic shit brother.

The nuance is the reason I tune in. I assume that's the case for most people here. We have plenty of other options for heated word battles. I'm here for the actionable info and nuance

I remain amazed how my five bucks a month or whatever has led to one of the single biggest vectors for positive change I have seen in my life. Keep doing what you do.

There is no escaping the conflict between virtues. The humans most credited with positive change aren’t afraid to live in that conflict.

Take your time. :) I appreciate the perspectives. People looking to understand can handle the perspectives that don't align with what they want to happen. I'm not sure anyone can convince someone who is just looking for evidence for an existing agenda which includes anyone who wants to say someone "won" the interview or debate. They're unlikely to think too much about the details anyway. I'm sure it's more work, but maybe you can make one shorter video targeted at the emotional side and one longer video looking at all the different perspectives? Also looking forward to more radio wave stuff, animal sounds, or any other surprising topic. :)

i very much appreciate the attitude you bring to this work, thanks for what you do

Benn, i deeply appreciate the work you do, your wish to improve and not just to criticize, the nuances you bring, and more. It's ok if some of your followers don't agree or even leave. I trust your decisions. Keep up the great work

Keep your eye on the prize, and I think that prize should be reform at the national level. If you can make headway on that, please do. If you reach the end of your rope, there's no shame in letting others carry the torch from here. But I think you still have a part to play. YouTube is just your primary platform. If you have a chance to wield a bigger platform for a moment, and you think you can do some good with it, go for it. YouTube will always be here.

I'll just say that you are the only person I'm actually subscribed to on Patreon BECAUSE of the quality and thoroughness of the information you bring. I'll gladly wait antoher year for your video if it means that you'll have achieved what you planned.

Benn thank you for all that you do. You use your considerable talents to further truth for the greater good. Yes I am sure you would rather play with radio waves and wild electromagnetic acoustic stuff as I think you are a polymath. But your voice is clear and true. The editing in your vlogs is lively and digestible. I should have just said, mad respect.

you sir, are an amazing human being! thank you.

🌵

I'm proud of you, Benn!

I can't get on the Discord server. The link doesn't work anymore

I won't say I'm a lawyer these days but as a person who has been to law school you are absolutely serving the public by waiting. until the verdict is in on that case! (Especially because the timeline is relatively short.) Thank you for everything you're doing. And yes, long live the nuance.

1: This letter is just as interesting as a new video. 2: I'm surprised you haven't mentioned here the recent pivot by cities and fed from Flock to Axon, which is happening faster than the public can comprehend.

Benn, you are waiting for the right reasons. I can't imagine how exhausting it must be to be in the center of all this. It's reassuring to see your energy levels and ethics remain high. Now, a CEO involved in problem solving in public... That's something I'd truly love to see.

I seems that there's more to this than meets the eye (literally). Apparently, as Flock increasingly gets canceled, municipalities and cities are quietly moving to a larger, competing platform, Axon (used to be Taser), who makes primarily police body cams but is moving into the license plate reader space, with products that are stealthier than Flock's. There are also some crowdsourced surveillance schemes that don't require cities to enter into a highly visible contract: This video discusses it, though I'm not sure how reliable the source is.. https://youtu.be/hlglh8kPb5U?si=ba1RFy08SxJlFroQ

I’m here because of the choices you make, good sir, and I trust you’ll make the best one for us all- whether we like it or not ;P ‘Preciate You for doin’ the dirty work ‘needs doin’!

You are living legend. Thank you for sharing and spending your time helping millions. This is what a proper millionaire is IMO.. someone who helps millions And this is the type of 'millionaire' which should be strived for, not some individual who greedily accumulates a substantial amount of fiat currency or real estate, or even worse, scams or manipulates money from people and then RENTS things to look wealthy

I really appreciate all of the great work you've done and are continuing to do in this space, thank you! I can appreciate nuance, but I believe with every fiber of my being that the existence of a large-scale interconnected surveillance system of the sort being built right now is incompatible with freedom, and any suggestion that that there could be a "right" way to set up ALPRs/AI cameras/device scanners all across the country (even if they had much stricter controls on access) will edge us closer to a total surveillance state and the death of any hope of a free society. There is no world in which any government can be trusted not to abuse the power of these systems, even if they somehow begin with the best intentions (which they won't). I don't know what your plans for the Senate testimony are and I trust your judgment, but given all of the horrible things you have uncovered on these systems, I sincerely hope you will not present the Senate with any sort of "both sides" nuanced position - this type of system is fundamentally evil and I believe it must be rejected in the harshest terms. Please do not give this Senate (which has proven time and again that they are unimaginably corrupt and spineless) an inch on this topic - they will take a mile. Any nuance will be lost on them, and floating the possibility that there's a way to do it right will only make it harder to convince them to reverse course in the future. Thank you again for all you do, and I look forward to more fun topics once you feel ready to return to them.

Hi Benn, as a recent addition to your community (and a fellow nuance peddler on a different but similarly complex issue*), I would encourage you to stay objective, nuanced and solutions-focussed. Partly to retain the credibility of your expertise and the success of your advocacy in some of the forums you are engaging e.g. Senate hearings (to the extent that it is even in question, presumably it is not). But also to your broader viewership who are here for the complexity and nuance and who respect you and your work in part because you treat our intelligence with respect. Where you’re at right now possibly feels fragile - I know it has for me at these types of intersections. My experience though, especially with law and policy reform (not in the US mind you so I could be way off), is that I have always been most successful when I maintain that steady, objective position. Anyway, not trying to tell you how to suck eggs, just really relate to where you’re at and even though I’m not in the US I appreciate all the work you’re doing. (* I work at the intersection of planning & environment law/policy/impact assessment, the energy transition & renewable energy development, biodiversity, and climate change. It’s very complicated here 😅)

Thank you for your research, advocacy, and all that you do.

The info you have provided has helped me contribute to the voices against Flock in our small rural Virginia county of less than 8,000 people. We have 4 (maybe 5) cameras here, all installed kinda under the radar of the public because they were on a "free trial". But people noticed them and spoke out at many Board of Supervisors meetings. Our Sheriff was called out on those cameras in public meetings and in public. She did not like it, I reckon. But guess what? Heard today through the grapevine that they've decided to cancel the trial and remove the cameras. Loud, informed, rational voices matter! Thank you for sharing your research and findings because it helps us all speak out in a more informed way to our local leadership. Whatever, whenever you can post, it is always a pleasure to watch your content. Say hi to the chickens. Our Lavender Orpington rooster is a magnificent creature!

This approach just makes you more credible. Thanks for the update

keep it up, all of it

One thing I would add to your Senate testimony is for a call to better protect whistleblower laws and make sure there is some teeth in actually enforcing existing whistleblower laws that corporations and government (federal, state, and local) violate and use to punish whistleblowers. If we had a culture of accountability both in the public and private sectors that was more robust, we would have seen the whole Flock scenario unfold quite differently and they would also be held accountable for violating and trying to harass you for whistleblowing on security violations in the surveillance and security industry.

As a new dad, I cannot express how deeply I was affected by watching the public-facing flock feeds of the man on the swing and the infant being loaded into the car in the lowe's parking lot. The issue with flock (or any mass surveillance for that matter) is not just that there are security vulnerabilities that need to be patched. The issue is that it takes power away from ordinary citizens and puts it in the hands of the government and private corporations. The issue is that our kids are seemingly going to grow up in a world where every spontaneous trip to the park or a friends house becomes a data point permanently etched into a hard drive somewhere. And that doesn't need to be the case. I get a little worried when you start to use language like "360 degree perspective" and "path to solutions" because for me, the only solution is for cities to cancel contracts and take down their cameras, not only with flock but any company producing alprs. But that said, I've been more than impressed with everything you've put out so far, so I trust that you'll find a way to frame things accurately and empathetically. Keep up the great work!

Keep up the good work man. You are needed.

There's never a dividend in being a jerk. 👍

I’m sure you’ll be careful interacting with Flock, but…be careful. :) Anything you say to them in public or private could be used against you and twisted. They could do an online smear campaign to anonymously accuse you of collaborating with them to undermine your support. Yada, yada, yada.

Being nuanced is good, total respect for hard yards you have put in.

Long live the naunce!! I welcome people giving things time to breathe and really thinking through points before speaking / posting / commenting. I am most pleased by creatives doing what pleases them, so, keep it up! Very kind of you to keep us in the loop, thanks Benn! But ofc, to each their own and so on and yada yada

Thanks for the update! You put a great deal of effort and thought into your work ❤️ thank you so much for what you do.

Respect.