Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers To Build Its Surveillance AI (404media.co) 12
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Flock, the automatic license plate reader and AI-powered camera company, uses overseas workers from Upwork to train its machine learning algorithms, with training material telling workers how to review and categorize footage including images people and vehicles in the United States, according to material reviewed by 404 Media that was accidentally exposed by the company. The findings bring up questions about who exactly has access to footage collected by Flock surveillance cameras and where people reviewing the footage may be based. Flock has become a pervasive technology in the US, with its cameras present in thousands of communities that cops use every day to investigate things like carjackings. Local police have also performed numerous lookups for ICE in the system.
Companies that use AI or machine learning regularly turn to overseas workers to train their algorithms, often because the labor is cheaper than hiring domestically. But the nature of Flock's business -- creating a surveillance system that constantly monitors US residents' movements -- means that footage might be more sensitive than other AI training jobs. [...] Broadly, Flock uses AI or machine learning to automatically detect license plates, vehicles, and people, including what clothes they are wearing, from camera footage. A Flock patent also mentions cameras detecting "race." It included figures on "annotations completed" and "annotator tasks remaining in queue," with annotations being the notes workers add to reviewed footage to help train AI algorithms. Tasks include categorizing vehicle makes, colors, and types, transcribing license plates, and "audio tasks." Flock recently started advertising a feature that will detect "screaming." The panel showed workers sometimes completed thousands upon thousands of annotations over two day periods. The exposed panel included a list of people tasked with annotating Flock's footage. Taking those names, 404 Media found some were located in the Philippines, according to their LinkedIn and other online profiles.
Many of these people were employed through Upwork, according to the exposed material. Upwork is a gig and freelance work platform where companies can hire designers and writers or pay for "AI services," according to Upwork's website. The tipsters also pointed to several publicly available Flock presentations which explained in more detail how workers were to categorize the footage. It is not clear what specific camera footage Flock's AI workers are reviewing. But screenshots included in the worker guides show numerous images from vehicles with US plates, including in New York, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, and California. Other images include road signs clearly showing the footage is taken from inside the US, and one image contains an advertisement for a specific law firm in Atlanta.
Companies that use AI or machine learning regularly turn to overseas workers to train their algorithms, often because the labor is cheaper than hiring domestically. But the nature of Flock's business -- creating a surveillance system that constantly monitors US residents' movements -- means that footage might be more sensitive than other AI training jobs. [...] Broadly, Flock uses AI or machine learning to automatically detect license plates, vehicles, and people, including what clothes they are wearing, from camera footage. A Flock patent also mentions cameras detecting "race." It included figures on "annotations completed" and "annotator tasks remaining in queue," with annotations being the notes workers add to reviewed footage to help train AI algorithms. Tasks include categorizing vehicle makes, colors, and types, transcribing license plates, and "audio tasks." Flock recently started advertising a feature that will detect "screaming." The panel showed workers sometimes completed thousands upon thousands of annotations over two day periods. The exposed panel included a list of people tasked with annotating Flock's footage. Taking those names, 404 Media found some were located in the Philippines, according to their LinkedIn and other online profiles.
Many of these people were employed through Upwork, according to the exposed material. Upwork is a gig and freelance work platform where companies can hire designers and writers or pay for "AI services," according to Upwork's website. The tipsters also pointed to several publicly available Flock presentations which explained in more detail how workers were to categorize the footage. It is not clear what specific camera footage Flock's AI workers are reviewing. But screenshots included in the worker guides show numerous images from vehicles with US plates, including in New York, Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, and California. Other images include road signs clearly showing the footage is taken from inside the US, and one image contains an advertisement for a specific law firm in Atlanta.
And eventually we'll find out... (Score:4, Insightful)
At some point I'm sure it will turn out these sorts of companies are actually criminal organizations that have been using this data to break into houses or something along those lines.
Re: (Score:3)
I just find it ironic that a guy who does this to everyone else puts out C&D letters when people publish his name and address publicly on the internet
But overall, yeah these types seem to forget that they also have names and addresses.
Re: (Score:3)
They don't forget - they simply don't think the same rules the unwashed masses are required to live under should apply to them.
Flock off (Score:4, Insightful)
Who watches the Watchmen? (Score:1)
Remember how so many people complain about the U.S. acting like they are the police of the rest of the world?
fair play (Score:1)
No surprise (Score:4, Informative)
Eventually someone will use Flock to assist with a high-profile heist of some sort, at which point it will become a problem.
Fuck Flock (Score:2)
Fuck Flock
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, but you could show the camera your ass. Really, nothing stopping anyone from standing next to a Flock holding a big sign that blocks its view, other than the Fuck Flock message the camera can see.
shame! (Score:1)
Anyone who works at Flock in the USA should be ashamed of themselves.
It's time to bring back public shaming and humiliation.
Crazy and dangerous to America (Score:3)
I can't imagine that this is going to turn out well. Crappy security on the cameras, terrible security in the online software, and now add in that data being manipulated by people overseas. That's a trifecta of security compromise creating a national security problem.
FOIA Requests (Score:1)
Would be a shame if everyone made FOIA requests for their local cameras.