In a delicious slice of poetic justice that the internet has been absolutely savoring, the CEO of Flock Safety — a company that makes license plate surveillance cameras used by law enforcement across the country — has had his home turned into a digital public restroom. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
After eagle-eyed privacy advocates noticed that the Flock Safety CEO’s home had been conspicuously blurred on Google Street View (a move that screams ‘I value MY privacy, thank you very much’), the internet’s most creative cartographers decided to have a little fun. Someone went ahead and tagged the blurred residence on Google Maps as a ‘Public Toilet.’
The irony here is so thick you could spread it on toast. Flock Safety’s whole business model involves installing cameras that capture and store license plate data from public roads, building a nationwide surveillance network that privacy advocates have long criticized as intrusive. The company’s cameras are deployed in thousands of neighborhoods across America, quietly logging where your car has been and when.
So when the man who profits from watching everyone else apparently requested his own home be shielded from Google’s all-seeing camera car, the internet collectively raised one enormous eyebrow. And then reached for the ‘suggest an edit’ button.
The ‘Public Toilet’ designation has since been removed — Google Maps does have standards, apparently — but not before screenshots spread across social media like wildfire at a kindling convention.
This is what researchers in the field of karma studies call a ‘textbook case.’ When you build a career on the premise that people in public spaces shouldn’t expect privacy, don’t be too surprised when the public decides your blurred digital fortress looks like an excellent spot to mark as a roadside convenience.
Flock Safety has not issued any official comment, possibly because there’s genuinely no good way to respond to this one.
*Source: TechTimes UK, via Reddit r/offbeat*
Original story via Reddit Offbeat
