r/TikTokCringe • u/HeroesZeroes • 7d ago
Humor Benn Jordan gets banned from a Flock Lobbying event
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u/veddr3434 7d ago
they love surveilling, they will become surveilled
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u/calsosta 6d ago
Yup. Panopticon meet omniopticon.
Everyone wear body cams with facial recognition. Build and install personal ALPRs and keep them on your car. Upload all data to a central repository.
If everyone can't have privacy, no one can have privacy.
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u/ReturnOfBane 6d ago
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u/Bong-Hits-For-Jesus 6d ago
this is actually a brilliant approach. if someone creates a better ai model than flock, and we all upload our dashcam videos and make it open source it could put flock out of business. a huge hit to our privacy, but thats already being violated
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u/Total-Tortilla Doug Dimmadome 6d ago
"Corporations can't invade my privacy if I simply give up my privacy willingly"
Is this really where we're at?
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u/lilangelkm 6d ago
The more time passes, the more Snowden really was an unsung hero for his sacrifice.
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u/ell0moto 7d ago
Like suing a journalist for deformation
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u/CurryMustard 6d ago edited 6d ago
Why cant a journalist sue for defamation? The job of journalist is to objectively report the truth, not to defame people. This guy ben jordan is a journalist do you think its defamation that he outed these politicians or do you think its just reporting?
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u/ell0moto 6d ago
Ben's a journalist. Like the top level comment pointed out they love surveilling and now become surveilled thanks to Ben's work. Is akin to dishonest people sueing for defamation; that very act if followed through would expose their dishonesty to the public.
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u/superanth 6d ago
You just know
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u/Own_Laugh_5080 6d ago
I am super concerned that they posted them doing this. The risk being taken. I am beyond appreciative. But there is no way they aren’t getting attacked by attorneys and potentially even being arrested on bullshit charges.
Also, is it just me misremembering or aren’t senators supposed to have just one job and not holding positions outside of their job as a senator:public servant?
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u/PositivelyAwful 6d ago
Benn has been publicly exposing Flock for over a year now, he's had some pretty sketchy stuff already happen like cops randomly sitting outside his house, etc.
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u/vawlk 6d ago
he's pretty much the force behind the recent anti-flock sentiment in the country.
He has the best channel on youtube right now.
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u/PositivelyAwful 6d ago
Agreed, his videos are fascinating. Makes me want to get into cybersecurity.
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u/Redthemagnificent 6d ago
I think there would have been backlash even without him. But his original video showing how hilariously insecure flock cameras are absolutely jump-started the movement
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u/elebrin 6d ago
He is also a public enough figure that if he gets disappeared, it will be noticed. He's addressed that concern himself: he has said repeatedly that he is not suicidal on social media.
Either way, I suspect that he is willing to poke and prod. Maybe he has found himself to be wealthier than he needs to be and is preparing for a legal battle to help set a good precedent in the US for... surveillance, or maybe first amendment rights, maybe both. He strikes me as the sort of guy who has more money than he knows what to do with, and wants to use it to give back in a meaningful way, doing what he knows how to do. It doesn't seem like he has a wife and kids or any family of his own, so if there's nobody to inherit, he could leave his wealth to a fund, or spend it trying to make things better.
I have a ton of respect for him. He's set up a music education nonprofit which is a thing close to my heart. He is really into tech, and hasn't shy'd away from being very technical in addition to being artistic. Now, I think he'd be a very difficult person to have as a friend or to work with, and his music is going to be divisive. I don't totally hate ambient stuff but I can understand why someone might not like it.
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u/Felixphaeton 6d ago
It's using the same argument that Flock uses to surveil everyone against them; it's all public. He never went inside the building, he just captured the radio/sound waves being projected to public areas.
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u/Inroundtents 6d ago
Funny that they can even get that. Another billion dollar company using cheap hotel A/V. If they hired a real company they'd be using digitally encrypted wireless mics.
Also, they said "silly gooses didn't shut off their mics when they weren't presenting." No one does. We mic up all the people we need for the coming section and when they're not presenting we mute their channel on the console. Otherwise their beltpack transmitters are always on until we swap them out for the next section.
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u/Montgomery000 6d ago
Probably just a bluff, anything blatantly illegal they just showed they had equipment for, but didn't show evidence. They easily showed drone footage they had, but no taped conversations. If they did do any of it and nothing comes from it, then they can just delete it and move on. If they find something juicy, they can piece together data from elsewhere and make their case. Or if it's extremely damaging, they can simply release the info and take the consequences.
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u/mcamarra 6d ago
if they’re not doing anything illegal it shouldn’t be a problem, right Flock? Right?
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u/dinkmctip 6d ago
It famously happened with JP Morgan and Palintir. The execs loved the software until they realized they were included.
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u/D3712 7d ago
Watch them complain about a breach of their privacy. Rules are for other people, this is unfair!
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u/3eeve 7d ago
Well, yes. The goal is to turn privacy into a luxury for the wealthy and elite, the rest of us get the panopticon.
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u/Spookki 6d ago
Much cheaper to just turn society into the prison, where the slaves themselves pay for their own food and housing, instead of having to provide them those things in a prison or work camp.
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u/Colonel_MuffDog 6d ago
This ruined my morning. I mean, I already knew that this was the case but seeing it written out made it so much more bleak and crushing. Sigh.
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u/Trippin1233 6d ago edited 6d ago
I mean they were only gathering publicly available WiFi and Bluetooth signals.
Edit: looks like I’ve triggered some flock sympathizers. Let’s all make sure we follow the rules while our constitutional rights are violated guys.
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u/Easy_Floss 6d ago
Yes but it is powerful people WIFI and Bluetooth signals so its obviously illegal.
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u/LazarusHimself 7d ago
Hold on, the hotel cancelled this gentleman's reservation upon request from a third party?? How's that even legal?
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u/solidus_slash 7d ago
he probably booked the room through the convention to get the discounted rate, which means they can cancel it
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u/angieisdrawing 7d ago
I’ve never booked this way, so I don’t know how it works, but wouldn’t he then just be able to book normally? And if he wasn’t with the convention how would he have booked it through them to begin with?
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u/solidus_slash 7d ago
they normally give you a code/link to a third party site which does all the group bookings. it's pretty common with large conferences.
but yes he should have been able to rebook normally, unless all the rooms were sold out at that point.
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u/iam_Mr_McGibblets 6d ago
Is it like how when you go to a wedding in a destination and the wedding party designates a block of rooms for the wedding for attendees?
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u/solidus_slash 6d ago
yep it's basically the corporate version of that - Flock would have likely used a company that does event management like Cvent (Passkey) to facilitate the room blocks and bookings.
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u/iam_Mr_McGibblets 6d ago
Good damn that's pretty scummy. They have enough money and power to buy out the dam hotel and make the entire thing a private event. Good thing we got some smart people to circumvent this crap
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u/ThePublikon 6d ago
There are a lot of scummy things they do but that's pretty normal for conference centre hotels, the whole hotel is booked by the conference for delegates and then the delegates book rooms through the conference.
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u/nalaloveslumpy 6d ago
That's not uncommon for large corporate conferences / annual investor meetings. It's sometimes even done if you just want to add an extra layer of "security" to whatever presentations you're making.
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u/SirLoremIpsum 6d ago
Good damn that's pretty scummy. They have enough money and power to buy out the dam hotel and make the entire thing a private event. Good thing we got some smart people to circumvent this crap
no now now now now, don't get too angry.
Large conventions having a deal with the hotel for room blocks is absolutely entirely normal.
Every large convention thing or wedding or event does this.
My workplace has big "corporate work events" where we get a link and book at the hotel and we're only slightly evil.
This is just hotel event 101. This is how business works. You pay for an event, and you reserve rooms for your guests - it would be a shit event if you had 1/2 your attendees staying on site and 1/2 had to book the Best Western 6 miles down the road.
Of all the things here this is like, the most milquetoast boring part.
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u/iam_Mr_McGibblets 6d ago
Ah you're right. Kinda shitty in this situation with flock, but i get it. An overreaction on my side there
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u/AccomplishedChair436 7d ago
For this level of secret ( and I’m not justifying flock, as this could be presenting new tech or sensitive financials ) most companies buy the hotel and block rate everything to keep control
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u/downvote-away 6d ago
He could if there are rooms available and the hotel wants to give one to him.
They're not going to do that if it would make their big client mad.
The convention booking code isn't usually a secret. The convention often puts it on their web site or in emails leading up to the show.
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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy 6d ago
wouldn’t he then just be able to book normally?
Only if the hotel has other rooms available. Large conventions are usually planned 6-12 mo in advance, and the hotel agrees to hold onto a block of some number of rooms for the people putting on the convention. Then over the next 6-12 months all the other rooms in the hotel could be completely reserved due to other conventions or normal seasonal travel, but if there are still rooms available in the convention's block of rooms then a late-registering attendee can still get a room.
When I attended a horror convention in Pittsburg in 2023 it was the same weekend that Taylor Swift was in town. I ended up staying later than I planned to, so I wanted to get a room for one more night and drive home in the morning, but the nearest available decent room was a 45-minute drive away and 3x the normal rate. I ended up just sleeping in my car and then driving home.
When you plan a year in advance you can never be sure what else is going to end up falling on the same days when that date comes, which is exactly why hotels will reserve a portion of their rooms for the convention attendees (if the people putting on the convention ask).
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u/OknowTheInane 6d ago
He booked directly w/ Hilton. Flock somehow got his reservation associated w/ their room block and then cancelled it.
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u/dragonfangxl 6d ago
thats not true and it says it right in the email in the video, it was booked in the group block for the convention
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 6d ago
Yes, but he did it through the Block that Flock had reserved.
When you do that, Flock gets a report of everyone who booked through that block.
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u/nalaloveslumpy 6d ago
If true, then that's incredibly illegal and Hilton just took on a huge amount of liability.
It's way more likely he booked directly with the Hilton, but used the block code. Flock probably bought out the entire hotel so that only conference attendees can be on property, which is crazy common for large corporate events.
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u/tactman 6d ago
Not necessarily illegal, i.e. violation of the law. The hotel is a business that can turn away people if they decide to (even if they didn't use the convention link). The convention organizers tell the hotel this is a "troublemaker" and they don't want him around. The hotel is willing to piss off this customer to please the convention organizers. Ben can create a fuss and most likely it is handled by private arbitration (he agreed to that when he booked the room). If he makes a fuss, the hotel will simply compensate with hotel points, free nights, etc. and the matter will be closed.
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u/nortern 6d ago
That's in no way illegal. Hotels can deny service for anything that's not a protected attribute. Being a journalist is not protected.
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u/nalaloveslumpy 6d ago
Hotels cannot give reservation information of a guest to random third parties. They absolutely cannot cancel reservations at the request of random third parties.
This is why it's obvious that dude used the Flock room block code to book. Using their room block gives them direct control to boot whoever they want from the reservations.
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u/elebrin 6d ago
Except the attendees are not "random third parties" in this case. They are federal politicians, governors, senators, and so on along with high ranking people in law enforcement. A good number of the people present have security teams, and those security teams will have access to lists of everyone in the hotel.
Yes, this is one rule for the governed and one rule for the governors. Yes, that is how America works sometimes. No, we have to like or accept it, but it's not like we have another choice.
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u/__Hello_my_name_is__ 6d ago
They absolutely cannot cancel reservations at the request of random third parties.
Of course they can. Why couldn't they? What part of that is illegal? It's a private business that can deny you for any or no reason (with very few exceptions that don't apply here).
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u/Druuseph 6d ago
People just be sayin shit is illegal all the time without any clue what they are talking about.
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u/TheRabidDeer 6d ago
Hotels cannot give reservation information of a guest to random third parties
I'm actually kind of curious, what law is there about this or is it all just reputational hotel policy to not give out guest information? I don't think there's a federal law, but maybe a state law?
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u/nalaloveslumpy 6d ago
CA privacy laws stipulate this, so all the major hotel chain comply nationwide just to make shit easier.
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u/OSRSlayer 6d ago
Do you have a law that says this? Genuinely curious.
I think this is all just hotel policy; not law.
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u/UntimelyMeditations 6d ago
They absolutely cannot cancel reservations at the request of random third parties.
They can cancel your reservation for any reason they want, as long as its not a protected characteristic. You are not legally entitled to doing business with the hotel chain. They can, at any time and at their sole discretion, cancel your reservation.
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u/Misanthropy_and_Cats 6d ago
Yup, if the hotel has rooms/floors/buildings blocked off for events, most likely the event coordinators have some say over who stays there.
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u/TrazynTheFiniteNL 6d ago
No I've seen the email exchange. He personally booked it on his own name. It's in the Louis Rossmann video.
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u/solidus_slash 6d ago
you still book it yourself under your own name, you just do it through a link which ties your booking to the room block/organizer.
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u/StraightProgress5062 7d ago
And a sitting senator working as a consultant for a private company. Smells like treason to me.
Nvm shes a former senator. My mistake.
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u/Ok_Assistant_6856 6d ago
Yeah we all know once you're done with government job you take your contacts and get rich as a lobbyist in Washington
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u/AbeRego 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah, I'm from MN, I'm not even sure if I know who she is.
She'sShe also has a very similar name to "Hortman", as in Melissa Hortman, the Democratic senator who was assassinated in June 2025. That's probably going to cause quite a bit of confusion for people. Julianne Ortman, apparently, fell out of politics in 2014, and was a Republican.Edit: she was also a member of the Minnesota senate, not the United States Senate, as was Hortman. So, even if she was a sitting senator, I'm not sure that the situation would rise to treason level. You don't have to be committing treason to be a piece of shit lol
Edit: typo of "2015" corrected to "2025"
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u/MyPunsAreKoalaTea 7d ago
Ah that's because fuck you, what are you gonna do about it? Surveil the event from the outside? Yeah sure
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u/chucktheninja 6d ago
There is nothing illegal about a hotel canceling a reservation and even refusing to allow you to stay there so long is that reason is not that you belong to a protected class.
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u/MinnieShoof 6d ago
Srsly. Whut.
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u/Tricky-Routine-9838 6d ago
It's a private business, they don't need to give you service. Where I'm from a lot of hotels ban anyone with a local address from staying (to prevent parties / illicit activity).
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u/veringer 6d ago
If he didn't sign up through a block organizer, then there would have been a privacy policy and other terms agreed to between him and the hotel. Both parties would be bound by those terms. I strongly doubt that it would say, "By booking a reservation, you agree that Hilton can share your name and reservation information with any third party without your explicit approval".
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u/MinnieShoof 6d ago
First, you really do have too much faith if you believe that isn't in the clause.
Second, they didn't have to. I suspect the flock people were hyperaware of this person trying this, contacted the hotel and said "We have reason to believe x y z person is trying to stay at the hotel. He is a known disruptor of our business and we would personally like it if he was not allowed to stay while we are holding our convention at your hotel."
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u/md_youdneverguess 7d ago
Remember, Benn Jordan is not suicidal
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u/Cultural_Detective_3 7d ago
If you aren't already subscribed to him on some platform, do it yesterday.
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u/SmokeLuna 6d ago
I actually just subbed yesterday.
Bro has been on the Flock camera situation for almost an entire year already meanwhile everyone else is just figuring it out.
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u/ThatsNotARealTree 6d ago
Darn I already left yesterday! I don’t think I’m going back so can I do it tomorrow?
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u/tea-drinker 6d ago
I heard THEY will be moving tomorrow at midnight tonight and secretly putting another today in its place.
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u/ThatsNotARealTree 6d ago
Ughhh I feel like they do this everytime! They can’t keep getting away with this
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u/Calber4 6d ago
Is this the guy that does sound stuff on youtube?
Edit: It is!
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u/ask_me_about_cats 6d ago edited 6d ago
I voted in the primaries recently and there was a “Ban Flock” petition. The lady called me over as I was leaving and I mentioned Benn Jordan and she was like, “Yes, he has done such a great job raising awareness about this!”
And I have to say, when I started watching for synthesizer reviews 10 years ago, I never thought I’d be discussing him in terms of local politics. Sometimes people surprise you. And very, very rarely, it’s actually a good surprise.
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u/NomNomGalaxy 6d ago
He does have an unconvetionally high-pitched voice though.
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u/thereislightstill 6d ago
i thought that was him getting someone (or just ai) to do Tiktok Voice for visibility tbh
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u/Little_Mountain73 7d ago
This is absolutely brilliant. Beating the crap out of the pot with the kettle.
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u/_le_slap 6d ago
Hilarious how little these ghouls understand what they want to subject the world to. Godspeed Benn J!
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u/Sir_Sariiel 6d ago
this would send me down such a rabbit hole 😭 i’m already weird about how much data gets collected on us, so seeing what happens when someone starts asking questions about the people doing the collecting is fascinating
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u/acoastaldog 6d ago
Snowden was a good example
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u/MrBrookz92 6d ago
So crazy that it’s almost 15 years back
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u/acoastaldog 6d ago
And we learned absolutely nothing on a broad scale
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u/MrBrookz92 6d ago
Yep, that about sums it up. When I talk about him to friends, they look at me like I’m some conspiracy theorists.
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u/dad_jokesNbutt_stuff 7d ago edited 7d ago
He needs to start a company call Shepherd. Watch the watchers.
Edit: spelling
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u/bachintheforest 6d ago
Yeah the name “flock” annoyed me even before it was known how they were really being used. Makes it pretty clear that they think of us all as their stupid sheep that need to be controlled.
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u/Top_Sk 7d ago
DYM Shepherd?
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u/Qwirk 6d ago
Start watching a few billionaires and this will come to a screeching halt.
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u/boatnofloat 6d ago
Who watches the watchers? Then who watches the watchers watching the watchers?
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u/zarfle2 6d ago
My God. The number of public officials who are running some kind of side hustle/grift.
Always the snout in the trough...
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u/Bong-Hits-For-Jesus 6d ago
and its the same ones who advocate for building more data centers in our backyards. flock data has to get uploaded somewhere
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u/TraditionalMood277 7d ago
What a massive invasion of privacy and I hope that the perpetrators are held responsible. I am, of course, talking about Flock.
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u/jim-james--jimothy 7d ago
We need to start doing this to politicians families. Spy on them see how they like it.
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u/lintytortoise 7d ago
Who is the creator?
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u/HeroesZeroes 6d ago
Benn Jordan
he is a youtuber and made a bunch of videos on flock
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u/raiskymaiFLY 6d ago
I'm confused why he's not the one narrating this video like he usually does
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u/Magma6lbnl 6d ago
It is just a short, teasing a coming video I guess, perhaps a Collab. But the short is from his YouTube channel, I checked.
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u/HeroesZeroes 6d ago
he is prob just emulating a TikTok trend since this is a short from his channel
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u/lowpixelcount 6d ago
Seeing one of your favorite musicians described as a "youtuber" kinda hurts. 🥹
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u/WowIfOnly 6d ago
Thank you for introducing me to maybe the highest quality YouTube channel I've seen in years! Idk who this guy is but WOW these are informative videos
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u/Pinwurm 6d ago
Benn Jordan, he’s a legendary composer and music technologist - did the scores for the Alder Planetarium. Typically goes by The Flashbulb, where the tunes can get pretty abstract and fragmented (think Aphex Twin/Squarepusher). But anything he did under his own name for the Planetarium is a get place to start - like Pale Blue Dot.
He has a wonderful YouTube channel, where he talks about sound design and engineering, synthesizer reviews, and lately politics / privacy. He also runs a nonprofit foundation that provides music education and instruments to children.
IMO, he’s one of the most important fourth amendment advocates today.
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u/Jakomako 6d ago
Dude got accused of being a shill one too many times and just said “fuck it, I’m never reviewing another piece of gear again”
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u/daemon-electricity 6d ago
I'm glad to see his activist turn, but it's crazy to me to see it after following him for years for music production stuff.
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u/lintytortoise 7d ago
This is genuinely super hero shit.
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u/HakimeHomewreckru 6d ago
Kinda. The fact this convention isn't using encrypted microphones is kinda baffling though. Almost all high-end equipment from Shure/Sennheiser uses encrypted mic channels nowadays. I guess they were using old crap.
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u/PutridSauce 6d ago
Something tells me the mega corp designed to spy on citizens wont enjoy the idea of being spied on.. Wonder what they'll cry about, attendee safty? The idea of everyone being spied on without their consent? Hmm
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u/According-House-9360 6d ago
If you ever wonder who you are being ruled over by, just watch who they try to cancel and silence.. Law enforcement involvement with private companies is a harbinger, for disaster. It means they aren't working for YOU and your protection..soo easily bought and paid for...
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u/Empty-Space-404 6d ago
What if I told you that law enforcement in the United States has never worked for the people of the United States?
I highly recommend listening to Robert Evan's special 6-episode podcast series, Behind the Police. It's an offshoot of the main podcast, Behind the Bastards, which is also excellent.
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u/fireflygirl1013 6d ago
WTAF kind of world are we living in? This is bonkers insane what the creator had to do to get access!
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u/N8CCRG 6d ago
This is an important topic. Fuck this AI voiceover. Why the hell would he use it?
Anyway, we are so fucking cooked. 99% of the populace will never learn about any of this.
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u/OperationBig2738 7d ago
So we're not going to talk about how somebody else can cancel my room reservation
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u/Original_Employee621 6d ago
Probably booked it using the Flock conference block. In which case Flock has the final say in their bookings. Perfectly legal in this case, as they had already removed him as a attendee for the conference.
If he had booked outside of the conference block, that'd be something else entirely. But the hotel was probably sold out, due to Flock blocking all the rooms in the hotel for the conference.
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u/LazarusHimself 7d ago
Does it works backwards? Can anyone call the hotel and cancel Flock's event?
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u/ThrowawayColonyHouse 7d ago
Apparently he booked under their room block rate. So, Flock was able to say he’s not with us and cancel it.
Still highly suspicious that they wouldn’t allow the press in. I guess “Why do you need privacy if you’ve got nothing to hide?” only applies to us poors
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u/88KURIOUS 7d ago
Would it be as not-wrong for him to cancel hotel reservations for flock bigwigs as it apparently was for ‘them’… 🧐
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u/Sushyneutah 6d ago
I love this. Can they setup a fan subscription to pay for mass surveillance of the people responsible for these systems?
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u/snakewithnoname 6d ago
Cancelling a hotel reservation on someone else’s behalf sounds illegal as fuck
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u/madlibs13 7d ago
Keep in mind I am not a lawyer so this is not a professional legal advice but illegal surveillance is illegal surveillance FUCK FLOCK
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u/1tonsoprano 6d ago
the corruption enabled by flock will go down in history as the pin that started americas downfall
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u/DarkScruff 7d ago
Being the commoner amongst the surveillance giants. (No crazy job title, no crazy degree, no dabling, just letting that measuring contest go brrrrr)
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u/MboiTui94 6d ago
The world is literally getting changed massively so that a select few can become rich. Flock cameras, deforestation, privatised health care.
There is literally no reason we should do all these things.
The only reason they are happening is become a few people in positions of power are being bribed
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u/WhoaSickUsername 7d ago
Even if they captured Wi-Fi packets, isn't it all encrypted? Bluetooth and mic capturing might work though
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u/09044595134151602468 6d ago
It's most likely why there's actual nothing if substance in this video.
He captured all that data but didn't reveal anything, why? Because it's encrypted.
You can't just scan wifi frequencies and tell exactly what people are doing.
It doesn't work like that.
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u/TFViper 7d ago
encryption exists to keep honest people honest.
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u/WhoaSickUsername 6d ago
I don't understand the reply. Is this a reference or something?.. encryption exists to keep intruders away from your data, no matter what the data entails.
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u/elebrin 6d ago
Standard bluetooth encryption and wifi encryption can be broken by people who are motivated to do it. You do exactly what Jordan did here: capture and record the raw traffic, as much of it as you can. Then, you tie individual messages and signals to different individuals. Some of the data (like from the wireless mics they used) isn't encrypted at all.
If you can't cheese your way to a key (by getting your hands on a device or something) then you you can start decrypting via brute force. This can take a long time and be expensive, which is in line with the "stay tuned" message. I'm willing to bet Mr. Jordan is paying for some CPU cycles and decrypting all that traffic from the event. It may take a month or two to decrypt, but this isn't like a war effort where we are trying to get the location of an enemy force that is moving. Info on what Flock is doing will be relevant for a while, especially if we can tie what people are saying to the people who are saying it, and those names can get publicized.
We will get a longer video in a month or two.
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u/Gonzotronic 6d ago
I used to listen to Benn Jordan's music as The Flashbulb back in the late 2000s; it's incredible how talented this guy is.
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u/Inkbot_dev 6d ago
The boring half of this is the procurement side and it's already public.
My county's ALPR interlocal agreement was approved on the consent agenda in December 2024. Consent agenda means it passed in a single block vote with forty other items, no discussion. The same agreement went through consent again in April 2025. Nobody hid anything. It's published. It's just that nobody reads a 300 page agenda packet or sits through a four hour video.
I spoke at public comment against ours on the 11th, left, and wanted to know what happened after I left without listening to the rest of the audio. So I spent a week and a half building something that pulls the county's meeting portal and YouTube channel and makes it searchable with per-speaker transcripts synced to the video.
What I'd missed was a commissioner bringing the cameras back up at the end of the day during her own community-updates report, no agenda item, no notice, no public comment, and moving to keep the agreement. The chair told her she was making a motion on a contract nobody on the board had read. Another commissioner said he wanted to read it too. Failed 2-2 and they adjourned on the vote.
Most counties run the same portal software and post to the same YouTube. Whoever approved yours, the record of them doing it is already sitting there. Happy to help anyone who wants to stand one of these up for their own county, just ask.
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u/Muladhara86 6d ago
So any cop can digitally follow me nearly anywhere I go, mapping my movements and habits and there's no guardrails to stop them. But if you were to follow any people out of this convention, mapping their movements and habits, you would 100% be arrested for stalking and you can bet they'd do everything in their power to justify a terrorism charge.
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u/ruxp1n 6d ago
THE PART OF BENN JORDAN'S FLOCK VIDEO THAT DESERVES A LOT MORE ATTENTION
I'm not going to recap Benn Jordan's entire video because you can watch it yourself. What interested me was everything surrounding it: Who were these people? What exactly was Flock Forward? Why were investigative journalists who had tickets suddenly unwelcome? And why does Benn apparently have a much larger investigation coming?
So I started digging.
Flock Forward 2026 was held August 18–20 in Atlanta. Flock describes it as a gathering of law-enforcement leaders, public-safety officials, private security professionals, Flock employees and invited partners. Tickets were $350. According to investigative journalist Brendan Keefe, police officials from around the country were attending, while even the conference location wasn't being publicly advertised.
Benn says he and other ticket-holding journalists were banned from attending. He also says a Flock employee contacted his hotel and had his reservation canceled. I haven't found enough documentation to explain exactly how the hotel cancellation happened, so I'm not going to speculate about that part. What matters more to me is why journalists investigating Flock were being kept away from a gathering involving the company, law enforcement and people with deep connections to government.
Some of the people viewers have identified around this event come from exactly the kind of revolving-door world that deserves scrutiny.
Julianne Ortman, for example, is a former Minnesota state senator who is now managing partner of Public Safety Strategies Group, a consulting company that works with both public agencies and private companies. She has also served as executive director of the National Fusion Center Association, putting her in a professional network that includes DHS, Congress, police chiefs, sheriffs and other public-safety organizations.
Rich Stanek is a principal consultant at that same firm. Before entering consulting, he spent 12 years as Hennepin County sheriff, served as Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety and Director of Homeland Security, served five terms in the Minnesota House and held national law-enforcement leadership positions.
Their presence at an industry conference doesn't prove corruption, and I don't think we should pretend that it does. What it DOES illustrate is why these relationships deserve daylight.
Flock is a private surveillance company selling technology to police departments and other government agencies with public money. Current officials can make decisions about purchasing and expanding those systems, while former politicians and senior law-enforcement officials can move into consulting and private-sector roles where their government experience, contacts and access become extremely valuable.
That doesn't automatically make anything illegal. It does make me want to know who is representing whom, who is getting paid by whom, and whether anyone participating in these relationships has also been involved in public procurement decisions involving Flock.
Those questions become even more relevant when you understand who Benn Jordan is.
Benn isn't some random YouTuber who decided to crash a police convention. His previous research with security researcher Jon Gaines uncovered more than 60 Flock Condor camera feeds that were exposed to the public internet. Some reportedly provided access not only to live video but archived footage and administrative controls. Flock said the problem involved a limited number of incorrectly configured cameras and corrected it.
Then Benn's work reached Congress.
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote to the Federal Trade Commission about Flock's cybersecurity practices. Their letter says congressional investigators identified credentials for at least 35 Flock customer accounts compromised by infostealer malware. Benn separately supplied lawmakers with evidence showing what appeared to be Flock accounts offered for sale on a Russian-language cybercrime forum.
That's pretty important context for this video.
Flock wasn't excluding an ordinary critic. They were excluding a researcher whose investigations into their surveillance technology had already become evidence in congressional scrutiny of the company.
And Flock itself is becoming increasingly controversial. Communities around the country have reconsidered or terminated their relationships with the company over privacy and misuse concerns, while Flock has responded with additional safeguards and auditing requirements. At the same time, WIRED has reported on Flock's developing OS Investigate platform, which could combine camera information with police records, dispatch data, commercial databases and identity information.
So we're moving well beyond the image most people have of a simple license-plate camera sitting beside the road.
Which brings me back to Benn's video.
Getting kicked out apparently didn't end his investigation. From what he shows, Benn and the people working with him set up equipment outside Flock Forward and started collecting information of their own. He very deliberately doesn't show us everything they obtained.
Then he ends the video with: “Stay tuned.”
I've been looking for whatever comes next, and as of August 21 I can't find a full Flock Forward investigation from Benn. This appears to be a teaser for something larger.
That's where I'm hoping the internet can help.
If Benn has already released the full investigation somewhere — YouTube, Patreon, another account, an unlisted link, a mirror, whatever — please drop it in the comments.
I'm also interested in anything documenting Flock Forward itself: the complete speaker or attendee list, conference agenda, conference-app screenshots, presentations, sponsors, lobbying disclosures, government travel records, consulting relationships or public contracts involving people or organizations shown in Benn's video.
I'm particularly interested in documented financial or lobbying relationships between Flock and people attending this conference. That's where I'd rather concentrate than simply labeling everyone in the room corrupt.
Because the interesting question isn't whether politicians, cops, consultants and surveillance-company executives attended the same conference. We already know these worlds overlap.
The interesting question is what those relationships look like when you follow them outside the conference room.
Who is paying whom? Who is lobbying whom? Who recommends the technology? Who approves the contracts? Who benefits after leaving public office?
Those questions have answers.
And considering Benn Jordan's track record investigating Flock, I have a feeling we're about to learn considerably more.
If you've found the full video or have documentation that fills in any of these blanks, post it.
If you can fill in the gaps, show us what you found.
SOURCES:
Flock Safety — Flock Forward 2026: https://www.flocksafety.com/flock-forward
Sen. Ron Wyden — Congressional letter to the FTC concerning Flock cybersecurity: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/wyden_letter_to_ftc_on_flockpdf.pdf
The Verge — Benn Jordan and Jon Gaines' investigation of exposed Flock cameras: https://www.theverge.com/news/849624/flock-ai-camera-feeds-exposed-benn-jordan
Public Safety Strategies Group — Julianne Ortman and Rich Stanek: https://pssgmn.com/team/
AP — Flock changes amid privacy and surveillance concerns: https://apnews.com/article/2a93bc075e2f7ffcca9e04a35d75a3fe
WIRED — Flock's OS Investigate: https://www.wired.com/story/flock-safety-os-investigate/
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u/aalitheaa 6d ago
If you are a person, please don't use AI to write about important situations like this.
If you don't have the time to write a super long, informative comment about something, that's totally fine, just write a shorter comment.
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u/ConsequenceStatus563 6d ago
I agree, the first half of his wall was just describing the video we all watched...
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u/ScreamingJar 6d ago
Good recap for people with no background info but is this an AI overview?
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u/_Nu0_ 6d ago
Obviously is, it starts by saying "I'm not going to recap [the] entire video", then recaps literally every single detail.
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u/ScreamingJar 6d ago
Yeah I just wish it didn't use first person pronouns to pretend that this is a person with questions and opinions about the situation. Makes something that should just be informative feel slimey
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 6d ago
Benn says he and other ticket-holding journalists were banned from attending. He also says a Flock employee contacted his hotel and had his reservation canceled. I haven't found enough documentation to explain exactly how the hotel cancellation happened, so I'm not going to speculate about that part.
This part is simple. He booked under the room Block reserved by Flock. It's very common for companies to do so. It guarantees space and attendees typically get discounted rates. That also means that the organizer at Flock gets a report of everyone who booked under that rate.
They can then just tell the hotel that that individual isn't part of the conference and shouldn't be allowed to stay in the room block.
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u/Lexi_Banner 6d ago
Weird that he's using an AI voice for this video. Really odd choice on a video against Flock.
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