Describing the routine technology around us, such as the Ring camera on the porch, the Wi-Fi network in the home, and your automobile’s cameras, AFR host Todd Herman said the public is surrendering its privacy to a “digital prison” growing around us.
“There is no history, in mankind, of powerful technology that is not eventually turned against us,” Herman warned.
To bring his fears into evidence, Herman shared a timely clip from a May 18 city council meeting in Corona, California. During public comments, a resident named Brett denounced the city’s contract with Flock Safety, a surveillance company whose cameras monitor and record automobile traffic for the Corona Police Department.
“I want to be clear what these cameras actually are,” Brett, who said he has 20 years of information technology experience, warned the city council.
Rather than just simple license plate readers, he explained, the cameras are more like “AI powered surveillance machines” in which every passing vehicle is stored in Flock’s own internet cloud. That information is the property of Flock, he said, not the City of Corona.
“Our daily movements are being harvested by a $7.5 billion corporation that only answers to venture capital investors, not to us,” he said, referring to Flock Safety’s close partnership with billionaire and technology guru Peter Thiel.
Brett was referring to Flock Safety’s announcement in March 2025, which AFN found online, in which the corporation said it raised $275 million to bring its valuation to $7.5 billion.
Back on his AFR show, Herman said he researched the speaker’s reference to the $7.5 billion valuation for Flock Safety. The IT specialist was right to question such a huge investment by tech entrepreneurs.
“He’s right,” Herman agreed. “It doesn't add up based upon a camera subscription fee, not even on law enforcement.”
So the logical conclusion, the AFR show told his audience, is tech entrepreneurs are not investing hundreds of millions of dollars into traffic cameras.
“What does add up,” Herman concluded, “is the building of a pattern-of-life package on every single human being.”
