logoalt Hacker News

IncreasePostsyesterday at 7:38 PM4 repliesview on HN

Well, we need laws and oversight to stop these actions. Do you realize that people use phones to stalk innocent people? And yet you probably have a phone. Why is that?


Replies

happytoexplainyesterday at 8:11 PM

This is like the "why drive if it's so dangerous" fallacy. We trade cost for value, downsides for upsides, risk for reward. Cars and phones are highly valuable to normal people. Virtually all people do not experience immediate, constant, concrete benefits from public camera surveillance. And this is not even to mention that Flock cameras are more abused than phones (although scale makes that subjective, it's kind of apples-to-oranges right now).

Analogies are distracting. They are rhetorical junk food. Make an argument directly supporting Flock cameras - don't just say "it's like phones".

show 1 reply
ceejayozyesterday at 7:38 PM

> Well, we need laws and oversight to stop these actions.

Do you think this hasn't been tried?

We have laws on stalking. We've tried to rein in cops.

bigyabaiyesterday at 8:03 PM

We have laws and oversight surrounding phone surveillance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawful_interception

Just like you say, it still gets abused both within and outside the government (eg. Salt Typhoon) because surveillance inherently threatens society.

show 1 reply