I can already feel my privacy impulses
bumping up against my anti-traffic
jam impulses. Get out while you still
can. They're everywhere. That's your guy
right there. I don't feel like I'm
avoiding it right now, though.
We have
Ninja Geek to thank for this one. I
think that should be a new rule that I
just do whatever the comments tell me
to. We did the Flock episode, which was
freaking rad and criminally
underwatched. Here's the question. Does
Flock Hopper work?
Is it such a pain in the butt that you
would never use it? And can it work in
Austin? So, we're going to do a field
trip. We're going to test [music] Flock
Hopper for Ninja Geek. Thank you, Ninja
Geek.
Is it ironic that [music] Flock Hopper
needs my location? Dog's Backyard Grill
on Brodie. So, [music] it says there's
the fastest route and it flags that
there are three cameras. And then
there's a privacy mode, so I can click
on Oh, that's great.
Wait, is there a flock just down the
road from us? There is. There it is
[music] right there. Do you have a
memory
>> Oh, no. I was going to ask, do you have
a memory of the worst traffic situation
you've ever been in? And then as I spoke
those words, I remembered the two of us
with Siri giving us bad directions,
discovering that we were driving the
wrong way on the highway. It had that
sense of like wrongness, but I couldn't
put my finger on why. And then we saw
the halo of headlights coming over the
hill.
It was a giant 18-wheeler. There is a
flock coming up over here on the left,
but it's on the other side of the
highway. Okay, so this is the first
thing we're coming up on.
It's specifically giving me weird
directions to avoid the Flock camera.
>> Then turn sharp left.
>> Okay. So, it's telling me to turn right
now, but I don't see what [music] we're
avoiding. Oh,
>> That'll be the one.
That's your guy right there.
>> I don't feel like I'm avoiding it right
now, though. Holy moly, Flock Central.
Well, this got a lot more interesting
[music] than I expected.
Look at
him, he's just a cool guy coming I love
touring parking lots. They're just so
charming. They all have a different
story. Oh, Docks.
Well, this wasn't supposed to be an
adventure just yet. Oh, wait a minute. I
have been to Docks. This is where the
Meshtastic meetup was. So, there's Docks
backyard over there. It's great. You
should come on out and meet with the
Meshtastic [music] crew. Oh, man,
fastest is 2.3 miles. Privacy, we have
to turn left to go right. Okay, well,
jeez, it's saying, "Get out. Get out
while you still can. They're
everywhere."
Oh, remember when I said there was a
Flock camera, but it was on the other
side of the
the highway? We're going to go [music]
visit it. All right, we're coming up on
the Flock.
Yes, that's it over there somewhere. I
don't know if I see it, do you?
That's an interesting part of the game
where it's like normally, if you're just
following a GPS, you don't really care.
It's like whatever, I'm getting on the
highway, but it might be telling you for
a very specific reason to stay on the
side [music] road.
So, I guess they're around [music] here.
Uh, yeah, maybe. Oh, you know what? I
bet for the parking the park and ride.
Okay, now we got our last stop. It's the
Pint [music] House. Oh, wait, they're
both zero cameras. There's no
difference. Yeah, wild. So, here I I
printed these out. If I was just looking
at where the cameras were, I would have
thought that we had to zigzag around
this one. But, according to the app, I
guess they're visually [music] obscured.
>> Do you know the legend of Dan's and
Fran's Hamburgers in Austin? Dan and
Fran [music] used to be married, and
then
they got divorced, and they divvied up
the franchises. [music]
And there's Fran's and Dan's, and they
were identical except for they had
different names. [music] Austin's got a
lot of good lore.
>> Oh my gosh, yeah. The ones that looking
at the map I would have avoided are
multiple streets over. We can't even see
it. They're over like past the P.
Terry's.
They're right by the P. Terry's.
So, that's that's a point in favor of
the app. The app was more right than
looking at the map would have been.
So, this is the first place that I legit
have never been to, but I see it every
time
I go to the airport.
>> [snorts]
>> I mean, I can't see myself doing that
every single day. But then again, maybe
it's just for special occasions.
>> Yeah, or maybe it's something that you
you might just use to get more context
on the usual routes that you drive, you
know?
>> You know what? That's a good lens
because it's easy to think of like,
well, I wouldn't use this, but just
knowing whether or not you're
thoughtlessly doing it, that I can get
behind.
Kind of
do whatever. Care about your privacy,
don't care about my privacy. It's but at
least know what you're up to. I could
justify just not going to certain
developments if they're just maggoty
with flock cameras. Oh, 404 Media just
had body cam footage that they just
released of somebody who did an
unconstitutional search on a flock
camera and you it's on the body cam.
He's right next to the suspect and he's
asking random questions while right in
front of her going through her history
of where she went to. There was like 100
kilos of meth in there, but it just got
ruled unconstitutional.
So, they just the whole bust is is gone
because because cops can't be bothered
to know how to use it constitutionally.
It's funny the little things that you
notice like ever since we've done the
soundproofing episode, like look at all
those baffles up there. All of that
would have just read as so much noise,
but now it's like, oh, I know exactly
what those are.
You know, the thing about being private
is you've got to
stay private.
>> [laughter]
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>> R O G U E. I'm certain that part's
right. By the way, happy 10th
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>> So, it's the [music] next day. You had
the chance to check out the footage last
night. What are some themes that you
noticed?
>> We did one trip with three different
legs, and each leg incidentally
represented uh different scenarios that
people might experience.
>> I would like to believe that was totally
on purpose. We
heavily scripted and crafted everything.
>> The first leg, we encountered some minor
deviations to bypass some of the Flock
cameras. We bypassed three Flock cameras
for that. A little inconvenient, but not
that big of a deal. And I think it's
worth noting that we recorded this drive
less than 2 weeks ago, and already this
particular Flock camera does not exist
anymore. Don't know where it went. Maybe
it was taken down lawfully, maybe not.
Who's to say?
But, it is no longer there. The second
leg, we had one major detour.
>> That was where it's like, oh, wait,
there's a cost if you want to avoid
these. And as we recognized, Austin is
fairly rural compared to some other
places.
>> Especially since we're not
>> [music]
>> downtown downtown, you know, we're kind
of out on the perimeter a little bit.
And then the last leg, no [music]
difference.
>> In my mind, I was wondering, oh my god,
does this app make you invisible to
Flock cameras? Like, if they don't see
you, you don't exist. [music]
And the answer is no, it does not. But,
it does something even better. It can't
help but inform you the entire way. If
you just turn it on, use it for a little
bit of a commute, it's so amazing how
you just become hyper aware the moment
somebody yells, "Turn left. Go around."
You're like, "Why?" And then every time
you go through that, you're going to
notice that camera.
>> Yeah, I mean, it might not be
necessarily practical for every [music]
single trip that you do, but it all kind
of comes down to like your own personal
risk tolerance. If
avoiding the flag cameras is a huge deal
for you,
fairly little friction.
But, if you're like, "You know, I would
like to avoid some flag cameras [music]
if it's easy to do that, but if it's
going to make me do a whole thing, then
I'll I'll
I'll I'll be seen by one."
>> There's a little bit of that kind of
nudge between automatic opt-in versus
automatic opt-out. If you tell yourself,
"I'm going to check deflacted.org," then
you're automatically opting in to being
seen, [music] and you have to get out of
that gravity well to take action to know
what you're going to see. Whereas, if
you default to using this app, you are
defaulting to opting out of getting
[music] seen, and then you have to make
the conscious decision, "I'm going to
ignore the fact that there's a flag
camera there."
>> Sure, totally. One minor critique I have
of [music]
>> My driving?
>> Of your driving, yes. [laughter]
When you hit that pedestrian, I I
thought, "This is one step too far,
man."
>> This [laughter] interview is over.
>> It was maybe a little loose with the
time estimates. The direct path it
estimated was 17 [music] minutes. The
most private path it estimated was 21
minutes. Google Maps in off-peak hours,
where there's basically no traffic, it
says 24 minutes.
And that's direct. Our trip took 32
minutes.
>> Oh, that's less than I thought. I
thought it was like 45 [music] minutes.
>> I would just be hesitant of using the
Flag Hopper app if you have an
appointment where you need to be
somewhere at a [music] very specific
time. but otherwise
it seemed it seemed like it worked.
>> Yeah. We had pretty good guesses of what
to expect in Austin, but I would love to
know in all the other cities out there
whether or not this is a non-starter, it
wouldn't even work, or whether or not
it's useful.
If only there was a place to post
comments.
It's a shame there isn't.
>> This video was supported in part by
viewers like you who pledged at
patreon.com/modernrogue,
where you can watch a newly released
50-minute conversation between Brian and
Jordan Breeding about making things on
YouTube. Or you can get your name in the
credits like Jordan Jules or Justin
Owen.
>> Yeah, I think
I think if the uh
>> [laughter]
>> You just knew that was going to happen.