A walk to grab a coffee. A drive to the gym. A commute to work. In America, these once-banal acts come with an understanding so basic we rarely thought to name it: no one was keeping a permanent record of where we went.

That assumption is disappearing.

Flock Safety cameras have turned streets into vast, searchable records of movement. You may not notice the camera as you drive past it. You may not know where the footage goes, who can access it, or what other information can eventually be attached to it. But don’t be fooled — it did not miss you.

Flock Safety has become increasingly difficult to ignore over the past several months. The cameras appeared across the country in high concentrations, seemingly overnight. Vigilantes have begun cutting them down under the cover of night. Police officers are using the database to stalk ex-girlfriends. Innocent drivers are being held at gunpoint over cases of mistaken identity. It seems we cannot escape Flock.

And through it all, the sales pitch remains remarkably simple: Flock makes you safer.

Perhaps it does. But that is not the point.

The central question is not whether a society can become safer by monitoring more of its citizens. Of course it can. A government that knows where everyone goes, whom they meet, and what they drive will inevitably have an easier........

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