David Young
gnuoyd.bsky.social
David Young
@gnuoyd.bsky.social
Recovering programmer. Software aphorist. Democracy and nature-watching enthusiast.
I am pretty sure Google’s office tools were made by some kids in a trench coat who work at the business factory.
December 11, 2025 at 7:27 PM
It is ridiculous and some of our worst neighbors, officials, and titans of industry are driving it. I think we can turn the tide on doorbell cameras by making the users look and feel ridiculous.
I really really hate how normalized life-with-no-privacy has become. Corporations, governments, random internet creeps... everyone has access to every single moment of your existence now and it's ridiculous.
“Landlords may say ‘smart home’ devices are a tenant convenience. But the reality is, these AI-enabled systems can track patterns of tenant behavior, identify when people are home, and provide landlords with personal information that could be used to push out tenants perceived as too costly.”
December 8, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Flock has a lot of latitude in placement of ALPRs, too, per contracts.
“…Flock’s default agreement with police departments gives the company the right to share data with federal and local agencies for ‘investigative purposes’ even if a local department chooses to restrict data to its own officers.”
Flock Can Share Driver-Surveillance Data Even When Police Departments Opt Out, And Other Flock Developments | ACLU
The company’s default agreement with police departments grants the company license to share people’s license plate data
www.aclu.org
October 25, 2025 at 1:45 AM
I know Doug. He has a way with words. He nailed Trump. Trump can send the military but Doug will humiliate them, too.
Trump hates to be the object of humor. He understands that humor can be a more powerful antidote to tyranny than any other form of criticism.

I'm sure he'd hate it if you shared this cartoon. [Cartoon by Jon Adams/The New Yorker]
October 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM
I am all too familiar with this. Many people who use these cameras have no respect for public space and this is only one way they show it. They water the sidewalk, let fires smolder for hours, compulsively operate leaf blowers, and generally make the urban outdoors crappier every day.
Today in what @hypervisible.blacksky.app would call luxury surveillance

"Hi! You are being recorded."

It was jarring. and then I *immediately* heard the same thing coming from a house around the corner
September 27, 2025 at 8:05 PM
@economist.com The @michaelhobbes.bsky.social and Peter Shamshiri podcast "If Books Could Kill” demolished the book _In Covid’s Wake_ in June. Your paper is weekly. What were you doing, printing an uncritical review of a foolish book in the second half of August?
September 8, 2025 at 12:09 AM
@wyden.senate.gov You cannot protect human freedom by making deals with surveillance firms like Flock Safety. They can always make a new deal with someone else. Ban their business model. End the mass surveillance sector.
🛡️Oregon Protecting Against Abortion-Tracking Cops
Senator Wyden brokered a deal with Flock Safety to block out-of-state cops from mining the data for their vigilante hunt for abortion seekers & immigrants. Cuz in states with bans, having a uterus means you are a potential crime scene. bit.ly/46CYL2J
August 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Another great book that I finished recently was @kimkelly.bsky.social’s Fight Like Hell, a history of the U.S. organized labor movement since colonial times. Gives several examples of private surveillance / violence (Pinkertons, hired thugs) and police opposing organizers—rhymes with the present!
August 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Finished “Nuclear Is Not the Solution” by M.V. Ramana last night. Nuclear is carrying the same baggage as it always has: bad economics, near- and long-term environmental dangers, proliferation risks, and public corruption. We cannot afford to waste time and money on it.
August 15, 2025 at 6:36 PM
I am continually appalled that Flock is even allowed to exist. Their network is a machine for abusing human rights at scale.
Spending my day off relaxing with the data from our county's Flock license plate reader audits and... well, doesn't look good! Most searches without plates, and scarcely a report or case number in the search reason description to be found.
July 4, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Timothy Snyder mentions something important, that Russia is very interested in psychological vulnerability, which Trump has lots of. snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-psy...
Does Russian intelligence deploy better “psychological technology” than the U.S. does?
Trump's Psychological Vulnerability
And the Destruction of the American Economy
snyder.substack.com
June 8, 2025 at 2:22 AM
In the ‘50s and ‘60s there were organized movements with leaders—some leaders were highly talented. People trained to be movement participants. Rosa Parks was brave; IIUC, she was also a trained activist. I lack movement training and ISTM talented leaders are few and far between—what about you?
A boomer friend was (nicely) asking my kids (teens & young adult) about why young people aren't protesting like her generation did. One reason is that they've seen nothing but escalating chaos their whole lives with no clear way to stop it.
May 17, 2025 at 1:47 AM
New heat pump came with a new “smart thermostat.” Old one (Nest) pretended to be a sleek ally for the energy miser as it tried during some winters to freeze some users in their homes. The new one (ecobee) does not pretend to be anything but a low-user-utility instrument for surveillance capitalism.
May 16, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Urbana keeps rejecting ALPRs but we are surrounded by communities that have helped extend Flock Safety’s web of unaccountable surveillance. Chances are high that Flock stalks you on daily journeys. This is a bad situation but it is also reversible.
Hey #Austin, join us for our next SASSI Session about why you should kick Flock Safety and their automated license plate readers out of your city.

Email us at sassisouth@proton.me to register for this digital presentation.
May 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM