Hong Kong protesters started using camouflage to stay anonymous after police started using facial recognition camera's: it turns out, it is only useful if you can also hide your camouflage. They needed to be able to blend in to avoid being caught. The idea seems great, but even if this would be done for real it would not be good enough unfortunately.
The problem is...then what? Are you going to walk from your front door to the flock camera, all in full black clothing and face coverings? You're going to have to walk past any closed-circuit security and Ring doorbell cameras. Police can follow you through multiple cameras and maybe even see you walking through your front door.
Are you going to drive a few blocks from the camera, park, and then walk to it? They can search vehicle position records for any vehicles that came and left within a certain distance from the cameras within a certain time period. If they can trace you walking to your car, they can find you. Even if you left your phone at home and use an old vehicle without spytech in it, there will still be video of your vehicle in the area.
Flock cameras are probably the single most capable cameras police departments have regular access to. But they have access to countless tools of surveillance. I think the only way you could reliably damage a flock camera and get away with it is if a Flock camera is near some nature area or other natural feature. For example, if there's a forest area a short distance from where the camera is, or a stretch of tree-covered river or creek you could duck into to break the camera track.
In order to destroy a flock camera and get away with it, you would need to have access to some large area that is not under surveillance. This allows you to walk into the area while in plain clothes, change into concealed clothing while in the area, and the reverse on the return trip.
Destroying a flock camera while keeping your face covered is trivial. The hard part is getting to the camera and getting back home without leaving a trail to your identity. And unless there's a big nature area nearby you can disappear into, I think that would be a challenge.
Notably, this is actually the technique Luigi used. He ducked into a wooded park to change clothes and escape the surveillance net. With enough resources they were still able to catch him. But someone destroying a flock camera won't justify as much resources to hunt them down as what Luigi did.
In the fantasy land where they're as capable as their fascist tools, and the tools themselves are as good as they advertise.
There are already dozens to hundreds of people getting away with the destruction of Flock cameras. They literally ask for public tips to solve them.
Have you read the research on the actual impact of all this bullshit on crime rate solving?
The panopticon is not finished.
Until it is, large swaths of your comment might as well be fiction, because until it's trivial to "justify as much resources to hunt them down as what Luigi did" for the average use, they literally can barely find their ass with them.
For some cameras in stores hiding IR LEDs on your person aimed out (eg sewn into a collar or hat facing forward) will disrupt the facial scanning but many have gotten wise to this and added ir filters. Even if they are susceptible it’ll make you a big white blob which easily makes you stand out so they can manually review footage and look for any moment the led failed, you didn’t wear it, you getting into a car with a license plate that’s read by an alpr, they just come grab you if seeing it live, etc
Nothing beats the combo of hat/mask/sunglasses though. Though some sunglasses are transparent to certain cameras, and others like vaydr claim to have an extra layer beyond ir blocking (but don’t explain how it works, really, bc “proprietary”)
The fact that old school tactics still work makes me wonder why nobody tries false noses, fake contacts, and other stuff costume designers are good at. There's an awful lot you can do to disguise yourself besides just the hat/mask/sunglasses.
If you're just trying to avoid regular everyday tracking, those may work. But if you're trying to actually get away with a crime, the problem is that you're trying to avoid every camera in a city, not just the flock camera you're vandalizing. Your neighbor across the street could have a ring doorbell that records you every time you walk out your front door. You can have the most elaborate disguise you want, but if there's video of you walking out your door wearing it, you're busted.
Though some sunglasses are transparent to certain cameras, and others like vaydr claim to have an extra layer beyond ir blocking (but don’t explain how it works, really, bc “proprietary”)
Zenni claims to have a coating that blocks facial recognition even on regular non-tinted glasses. I sprung for the option when I got new glasses, but I haven't tried to test if it actually works yet. (Obviously, it won't do anything on systems that work only in the visible spectrum, but better than nothing?)
Benn Jordan did this with license plate readers. The stickers were invisible to casual observation, but the cameras couldn’t reliably decode anything from them.
Jup, people need to read up on adversarial training. I've seen examples of lightly sprinkled noise over pictures that completely breaks any object recognition and you wouldn't see any difference in the picture with a human eye.
What's is your point about HK? Why always point directly at China?
What about the Gestapo you call ICE with their face masks? What about flock cameras in the US being used to track ex wives or girlfriends?
Don't do this to your vehicles. A) it doesn't fucking work. B) It's meant to trick you into making yourself an easily identifiable target for law enforcement.
The best thing you can do is avoid the cameras when possible and make your car as bland as possible (no stickers, no identifying features). These systems suck, lean into that fact. Also a little "accidental" splattered mud on the license plate doesn't hurt either. Not enough to prevent a person from reading it, but just enough to break the AIs brain.
Here are some people at DEFCON who have been making low-cost devices for identifying the radio fingerprint of nearby flock cameras: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-2uAsJ5EPAw
Which is cool, but also the cameras aren't exactly inconspicuous. You can easily see them well before you're in bluetooth range. Or just check deflock.
Knowing that the state that submits the image for human review is that the system must automatically (1) identify a car (2) whose license plate can't be automatically read, the more productive trickery would be to defeat the "identify a car" part where the software doesn't even know that a car drive within its field of view, and therefore doesn't know to take a still frame and forward it to a human.
Alternatively, have the software automatically read a license plate incorrectly so that it doesn't trigger human review but is instead confidently incorrect in what it did log to the records.
Pretty sure flock collects a ton of data that is fed to ML algorithms such that even with a partial plate they can cross reference make/model/location/color/previous tracks to identify whose car it is or at least identify it as unique from every other vehicle.
Also bluetooth signals from your phone, likely also from your car...
The point is trying to trick the cameras is a fun exercise, but realistically we just need our representatives to represent us, which they've proven over the years to be entirely uninterested in doing
This will not work. AI-enabled surveillance cameras are more than capable of determining that it's a wrap on a car, rather than multiple cars all somehow moving in the exact same direction in the exact same area while all facing in incorrect directions relative to the camera.
If anything, it's just another data point, because Flock cameras also catalog details about your vehicle like stickers, color, wraps, graffiti, dents, etc.
Adversarial patterns/noise can confuse cameras, but that's usually done not by tricking it into thinking, for example, that this one van is actually a hundred mini vans crammed into the same space, but by tricking it into thinking there's not a car there because the pattern just confuses it and it recognizes it as any random sequence of random objects and things simultaneously.
Just slapping a bunch of car photos won't make it think it's a car, because the little photos are tiny, don't move like a car, are still visually distinct from the background, and are on a much larger car-shaped object. If your car has patterns that makes it look like the general concept of an asphalt road, road signs, lamp posts, etc, then it might be enough to confuse the camera into thinking the odd blob shapes are something else, because cars on the road are also always passing on top, in front of, and by asphalt, road signs, lamp posts, etc.
The cameras don't have depth perception, so if your car looks close enough to the road and objects around it, it'll blend right in, to the camera.
Wonder if covering in a design that looks like you are covered in plates would do anything. Like blurred rectangles that sorta look like a particular states plate and then random numbers. Is it illegal to cover your car in numbers?
Maybe? Probably depends how specific the laws are around fake plates. If it's, "Displaying number plates on your car that aren't registered to it", then that's probably broad enough they could.
Instead of using a car wrap, what about just setting up a big TV on a pole, pointed directly at a camera, set to continuously generate and display images of vehicles with random license plates? In that case you wouldn't be actually displaying alternate plate numbers on any vehicle. You would just be fuzzing the camera with images of fake cars.
The entire legal justification for flock cameras is that it's legal to record anything that's in public. But it's also perfectly legal to display images of cars on a TV.
Hell, you could probably do this as a protest, holding up a TV on a pole while standing on a public sidewalk. (Might need to make it a cart of some sort.)
As silly as this is, with access to the exact model flock uses for vehicle recognition, it might be possible to design a camouflage paint job that confuses the classification pipeline
76 Comments
Isa@feddit.org · 153 pts · 2d
Too bad! 🥹
BigDiction@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 2d
Yeah I could tell from the pride colors of the Sherrif Dept logo lol
DakRalter@thelemmy.club · 5 pts · 2d
Seriff*
huppakee@lemmy.world · 88 pts · 2d
Hong Kong protesters started using camouflage to stay anonymous after police started using facial recognition camera's: it turns out, it is only useful if you can also hide your camouflage. They needed to be able to blend in to avoid being caught. The idea seems great, but even if this would be done for real it would not be good enough unfortunately.
Godort@lemmy.ca · 152 pts · 2d
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz · 80 pts · 2d
Once heard a cop telling a story of the most petty criminal they apprehended.
A school teacher with no criminal record decide to break into a random gardening store in the middle of the night.
Was unable to find money, and then decided to steal sacks of potting dirt..
Got caught on the home after passing the cop on patrol. They didn’t know about the theft but the guy had covered his license plate…
Randelung@lemmy.world · 56 pts · 2d
Only commit a single crime at once. Have a body in the car? Make sure all of your taillights are working.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz · 11 pts · 2d
I'll keep that in mind and let you know how it goes
svtdragon@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
I've always heard it as "only break one law at a time."
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 20 pts · 2d
The saddest part of this story is how a school teacher felt he needed to turn to burglary in order to make up for being underpaid...
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I was always told "one crime at a time".
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 2d
Dress in black so you blend in with the spraypaint covering the camera lens.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d
The problem is...then what? Are you going to walk from your front door to the flock camera, all in full black clothing and face coverings? You're going to have to walk past any closed-circuit security and Ring doorbell cameras. Police can follow you through multiple cameras and maybe even see you walking through your front door.
Are you going to drive a few blocks from the camera, park, and then walk to it? They can search vehicle position records for any vehicles that came and left within a certain distance from the cameras within a certain time period. If they can trace you walking to your car, they can find you. Even if you left your phone at home and use an old vehicle without spytech in it, there will still be video of your vehicle in the area.
Flock cameras are probably the single most capable cameras police departments have regular access to. But they have access to countless tools of surveillance. I think the only way you could reliably damage a flock camera and get away with it is if a Flock camera is near some nature area or other natural feature. For example, if there's a forest area a short distance from where the camera is, or a stretch of tree-covered river or creek you could duck into to break the camera track.
In order to destroy a flock camera and get away with it, you would need to have access to some large area that is not under surveillance. This allows you to walk into the area while in plain clothes, change into concealed clothing while in the area, and the reverse on the return trip.
Destroying a flock camera while keeping your face covered is trivial. The hard part is getting to the camera and getting back home without leaving a trail to your identity. And unless there's a big nature area nearby you can disappear into, I think that would be a challenge.
Notably, this is actually the technique Luigi used. He ducked into a wooded park to change clothes and escape the surveillance net. With enough resources they were still able to catch him. But someone destroying a flock camera won't justify as much resources to hunt them down as what Luigi did.
Ajen@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2d
It was a joke, I think you skipped over the second half of the sentence.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
Hmm. That does appear to be the case! 😂
Aqivex@fedinsfw.app · 1 pts · 1d
They, could do all of those things, in theory.
In the fantasy land where they're as capable as their fascist tools, and the tools themselves are as good as they advertise.
There are already dozens to hundreds of people getting away with the destruction of Flock cameras. They literally ask for public tips to solve them.
Have you read the research on the actual impact of all this bullshit on crime rate solving?
The panopticon is not finished.
Until it is, large swaths of your comment might as well be fiction, because until it's trivial to "justify as much resources to hunt them down as what Luigi did" for the average use, they literally can barely find their ass with them.
ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 23 pts · 2d
For some cameras in stores hiding IR LEDs on your person aimed out (eg sewn into a collar or hat facing forward) will disrupt the facial scanning but many have gotten wise to this and added ir filters. Even if they are susceptible it’ll make you a big white blob which easily makes you stand out so they can manually review footage and look for any moment the led failed, you didn’t wear it, you getting into a car with a license plate that’s read by an alpr, they just come grab you if seeing it live, etc
Nothing beats the combo of hat/mask/sunglasses though. Though some sunglasses are transparent to certain cameras, and others like vaydr claim to have an extra layer beyond ir blocking (but don’t explain how it works, really, bc “proprietary”)
taiyang@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 2d
The fact that old school tactics still work makes me wonder why nobody tries false noses, fake contacts, and other stuff costume designers are good at. There's an awful lot you can do to disguise yourself besides just the hat/mask/sunglasses.
0x0@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 2d
Prosthetic fingers, footage is obviously ai manipulated
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
If you're just trying to avoid regular everyday tracking, those may work. But if you're trying to actually get away with a crime, the problem is that you're trying to avoid every camera in a city, not just the flock camera you're vandalizing. Your neighbor across the street could have a ring doorbell that records you every time you walk out your front door. You can have the most elaborate disguise you want, but if there's video of you walking out your door wearing it, you're busted.
Soggy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
And something to change your gait, like one shoe with a small lift.
grue@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
Zenni claims to have a coating that blocks facial recognition even on regular non-tinted glasses. I sprung for the option when I got new glasses, but I haven't tried to test if it actually works yet. (Obviously, it won't do anything on systems that work only in the visible spectrum, but better than nothing?)
Dultas@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d
Apparently clown makeup, specifically Juggalo makeup, used to be good at confusing facial recognition.
anomnom@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 2d
Benn Jordan did this with license plate readers. The stickers were invisible to casual observation, but the cameras couldn’t reliably decode anything from them.
I think it used bits of IR vinyl.
Is IR reflective makeup a thing?
cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2d
I assume it can be done. IR reflective ink has been a part of spycraft for a while.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
Looks to not be. IR reflective sunscreens and foundations would probably sell fairly well
anomnom@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2d
IR doesn’t hurt your skin like UV, but it would keep you cooler I think.
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 2d
its probably possible to have inconspicuous patterns that get interpreted in same way as clear picture
Nomad@infosec.pub · 0 pts · 1d
Jup, people need to read up on adversarial training. I've seen examples of lightly sprinkled noise over pictures that completely breaks any object recognition and you wouldn't see any difference in the picture with a human eye.
huppakee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
I think if you have access to the digital content it is much easier to trick the machines, here is a cool example of that: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/07/31/decoy-font-ai-mixfont/
Hardest is when you don't and don't even know what the data is exactly, how much footage there is of you, where camera's are etc.
stumu415@lemmy.zip · -3 pts · 1d
What's is your point about HK? Why always point directly at China? What about the Gestapo you call ICE with their face masks? What about flock cameras in the US being used to track ex wives or girlfriends?
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world · 65 pts · 2d
The fact this needs to be pointed out shows the level of the users here.
some_designer_dude@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2d
I’d already covered my whole car before reading the post description 🤦♂️
speckofrust@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 1d
You’re very smart and we’re very dumb. Congratulations.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
Finally someone gets it.
Doom@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 2d
Don't do this to your vehicles. A) it doesn't fucking work. B) It's meant to trick you into making yourself an easily identifiable target for law enforcement.
The best thing you can do is avoid the cameras when possible and make your car as bland as possible (no stickers, no identifying features). These systems suck, lean into that fact. Also a little "accidental" splattered mud on the license plate doesn't hurt either. Not enough to prevent a person from reading it, but just enough to break the AIs brain.
nymnympseudonym@piefed.social · 22 pts · 2d
Have you done actual testing against multiple cam types, including Ring and Flock?
This guy has, he presented at BlackHat. And yes, it works
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/09/this-adversarial-pattern-can-prevent-surveillance-cameras-from-detecting-you/
Almacca@aussie.zone · 6 pts · 2d
They'll never be able to spot it now!
T156@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
It doesn't break the camera like the post suggests, however. It just prevents them from registering it as a vehicle.
perviouslyiner@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2d
Here are some people at DEFCON who have been making low-cost devices for identifying the radio fingerprint of nearby flock cameras: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-2uAsJ5EPAw
chisel@piefed.social · 2 pts · 2d
Which is cool, but also the cameras aren't exactly inconspicuous. You can easily see them well before you're in bluetooth range. Or just check deflock.
treadful@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 2d
They're hiding some of them now.
0x0@infosec.pub · 11 pts · 2d
Plates that can't be read by software gets sorted for human input, splattering it doesnt help unless its completely unreadable.
Get an electromagnet and put behind your plates instead with a fake leaf that disappears anytime you get pulled over
GamingChairModel@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Knowing that the state that submits the image for human review is that the system must automatically (1) identify a car (2) whose license plate can't be automatically read, the more productive trickery would be to defeat the "identify a car" part where the software doesn't even know that a car drive within its field of view, and therefore doesn't know to take a still frame and forward it to a human.
Alternatively, have the software automatically read a license plate incorrectly so that it doesn't trigger human review but is instead confidently incorrect in what it did log to the records.
cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 2d
Pretty sure flock collects a ton of data that is fed to ML algorithms such that even with a partial plate they can cross reference make/model/location/color/previous tracks to identify whose car it is or at least identify it as unique from every other vehicle.
Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2d
Also bluetooth signals from your phone, likely also from your car...
The point is trying to trick the cameras is a fun exercise, but realistically we just need our representatives to represent us, which they've proven over the years to be entirely uninterested in doing
dharmacurious@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 2d
What about those UV lights on the tag? I've wondered about using those
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social · 25 pts · 2d
This will not work. AI-enabled surveillance cameras are more than capable of determining that it's a wrap on a car, rather than multiple cars all somehow moving in the exact same direction in the exact same area while all facing in incorrect directions relative to the camera.
If anything, it's just another data point, because Flock cameras also catalog details about your vehicle like stickers, color, wraps, graffiti, dents, etc.
Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2d
There was a story the other day where certain patterns were confusing the image detection though.
AmbitiousProcess@piefed.social · 9 pts · 2d
Some patterns can. This one won't.
Adversarial patterns/noise can confuse cameras, but that's usually done not by tricking it into thinking, for example, that this one van is actually a hundred mini vans crammed into the same space, but by tricking it into thinking there's not a car there because the pattern just confuses it and it recognizes it as any random sequence of random objects and things simultaneously.
Just slapping a bunch of car photos won't make it think it's a car, because the little photos are tiny, don't move like a car, are still visually distinct from the background, and are on a much larger car-shaped object. If your car has patterns that makes it look like the general concept of an asphalt road, road signs, lamp posts, etc, then it might be enough to confuse the camera into thinking the odd blob shapes are something else, because cars on the road are also always passing on top, in front of, and by asphalt, road signs, lamp posts, etc.
The cameras don't have depth perception, so if your car looks close enough to the road and objects around it, it'll blend right in, to the camera.
Sprocketfree@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
Yes, but I like people are trying 😂
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
Looks like dazzle camouflage is back on the menu, boys!
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 2d
Wonder if covering in a design that looks like you are covered in plates would do anything. Like blurred rectangles that sorta look like a particular states plate and then random numbers. Is it illegal to cover your car in numbers?
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
How about QR codes?
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus · 1 pts · 2d
Schizophrenics do it all day long and don't get into trouble, at least not for their car decor choice.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 2d
Select all the images that have cars
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 2d
This square has a tiny sliver of a fender. Does the system count that as a car?
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1d
No way that Flock cameras have good enough resolution to be able to tell that those are pictures of cars. Not even close.
Zink@programming.dev · 8 pts · 2d
It's great to see little Bobby Tables' car wrap business taking off. I need to make an appointment!
Wren@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 2d
The car version of the ahegao hoodies we all wear to fool facial recognition.
pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 2d
I mean can you be punished for this? It should be protected under 1st amendment imo
Dultas@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
Maybe? Probably depends how specific the laws are around fake plates. If it's, "Displaying number plates on your car that aren't registered to it", then that's probably broad enough they could.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d
Instead of using a car wrap, what about just setting up a big TV on a pole, pointed directly at a camera, set to continuously generate and display images of vehicles with random license plates? In that case you wouldn't be actually displaying alternate plate numbers on any vehicle. You would just be fuzzing the camera with images of fake cars.
The entire legal justification for flock cameras is that it's legal to record anything that's in public. But it's also perfectly legal to display images of cars on a TV.
Hell, you could probably do this as a protest, holding up a TV on a pole while standing on a public sidewalk. (Might need to make it a cart of some sort.)
RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2d
OpenStars@discuss.online · 4 pts · 2d
It's car-ception!
TIEPilot@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
Oh this gives me an idea...
rumba@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 2d
Yeah, I was about to say, there's no Monocacy County in Maryland :)
callouscomic@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 2d
Ah, but there IS a Seriff's Office? Do they ensure the legacy of Times New Roman?
IzzyScissor@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
They're from the Department of Defiance.
ShutUpWesley@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 2d
As silly as this is, with access to the exact model flock uses for vehicle recognition, it might be possible to design a camouflage paint job that confuses the classification pipeline
pivot_root@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
Benn Jordan made a video outlining his experiments around this topic. Good stuff.
anticurrent@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
I wonder what would be the effect of wrapping the car with holographic paper on those flock cameras.
grandel@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 2d
Leftover donuts, It's too real.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2d
At the very least it would be a statement on how sick of being surveilled we are.
flandish@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2d
i doubt that would work, just knowing what i know about stuff like opencv let alone proprietary things like cognex/precise.
chaogomu@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2d
There are patterns that these cameras cannot parse.
They either discard the image or flag it for a human, depending on the configuration.
The reason this works is that these AI bots are trained on solid color cars and car shapes.
Eventually this might stop working, if only because these models are constantly being trained in more and more of our data.
flandish@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d
it doesn’t necessarily have to be an “ai” model just machine vision custom tuned. on yes, gobs of data. :(