Flock is Tracking People, Not Just Cars
Jul 22, 2026 · 46m
Summary
Hosts Joseph, Sam, Emmanuel, and Jason celebrate 404 Media’s third anniversary with upcoming NYC events. The episode investigates how police use Flock’s “freeform” AI searches to track people, not just cars, leading to wrongful arrests. It also reveals AI companies are buying and destroying rare books for training data to avoid model collapse.
Topics discussed
Sponsor reads and show announcements
404 Media's 3rd anniversary events in NYC
Flock surveillance and freeform search capabilities
Investigating police use of Flock freeform searches
Case study: False arrest from vague vehicle searches
Scale of Flock camera networks and searches
Exposed cameras and video tracking upgrades
Ad breaks: Warby Parker, Incogni, and Savi
AI companies buying books in bulk from sellers
Book destruction for AI training data and model collapse
ISBN DB facilitating secret book sales to AI firms
Secrecy, NDAs, and the race for rare books
Outro and Uber Eats sponsorship
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