Some surveillance I noticed today

Some surveillance I noticed today

by Anonymous · July 18, 2026

My city is getting digital price tags that have cameras on each individual tags, and lithium batteries, and need charging (despite having solar behind the screen?), therefore are necessarily more expensive than a $0.01 printed tag delivered by a stocker whenever he restocks next.

The only way these things make their money back is if they can extract the MOST value out of EACH person who might want or need a specific product. That necessitates surveillance.

Capitalism isn't inherently bad. Under the ideal conditions people make enough to sustain themselves, live comfortably, and be who they want to be. Today's capitalism is far from "making enough" and "living comfortably.

The problem is the "ideal conditions" haven't ever really existed in the US. The average person has always been milked like a cow and taught from childhood that the grass is poisonous on the other side.

Look at the below image I took today that came with a new garage door opener:

Garage door opener

No one asked for this, it wasn't the "premium" option, it was the only offering in the area because the more traditional non-connected offerings are feeling the pressure for recurring revenue and mass surveillance is an easy way to achieve that (just ask flock!).

This is so sad to me. How do we design against this sort of thing and educate people will who will happily just download the app and agree to everything for five minutes of novelty?

Lots of the problem is lack of obvious negative consequences. The left goes nuts about Flock when some cop nabs a latino he tracked through Flock. The right goes nuts when Twitter censors their tweets about election fraud. These are both indirect but tangible consequences of surveillance, whether you agree with them or not. Both sides get angry when insurance companies track and increase rates if you stop at the crosswalk or pull out slightly for better visibility.

Give the people some novelty or utility, and things change. People become complacent or even happy to invite surveillance into their homes, even if in the back of their mind they know it is being used against them.

How do we reverse this trend away from privacy towards this perverted idea of "safety"? I'm not sure. It's not hopeless. Maybe we need more law enforcement misconduct using surveillance tech for people to wake up? It's so sad that it's gotten to this point.

If the cop had stalked George Floyd with Flock, justified his actions by looking at Floyd's criminal associations in Palantir, and used an AI powered drone to chase him down, would people care then? I think so!

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