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Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program

Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program

bundie

Comments (80)

  • wyrdcurt
    Related from a couple days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49762835
  • andix
    My prediction: they are going to change their name and move a lot of their business to multiple subsidiary with different names. Until nobody notices anymore it's all one company formerly known as Flock.
  • dkobia
    Axon which is already well established is quietly stealing Flocks market share while avoiding all the scrutiny.
  • neilv
    Facebook had a good idea for hiring and retention: pay the highest, and that will boost college students' perceptions of how cool you are.Facebook got a lot of mileage out of that, running long after public scandals confirmed the early hints of possible sketchiness, back when Google was an attractive alternative.Though I don't know that's still necessary. The job markets are different now, since there's not many tech employment options that aren't either sketchy or reviled. Anti-AI-worker sentiment seems high lately, outside of HN circles -- much more widespread and negative than I recall any kind of perception of pre-AI tech workers -- yet there aren't a lot of non-AI employment options.So, some Flock employees might want to leave, over ethics, social status, or company internal culture, but... if they end up at a AI company, they might soon still be seeing a lot of social negative feedback anyway.("Hi, nice to meet you. ... Me? Oh, I work on, uh, software. ... Yeah, AI is really disrupting things in my field, too. It's been a bit rough, but we're hanging in there.")
  • cush
    Until there’s real civil liabilities around how companies use and share data there will never be an economic reason for any company to respect their consumers. When the data is worth more than the core business, the equilibrium is completely thrown off. It’s the same forces pushing AI companies to effectively give away inference while their chatbots convince teenagers to commit suicide. You are the product.
  • bentt
    This is a good case for making some laws which ensure entities responsible cannot hide from the public by white labeling, changing names, etc.In other words, since surveillance of the public by definition involves the public, the public should have a say in how it is conducted and the companies that attempt to profit from it should have their revenue streams depend on a healthy relationship with the public.
  • bensyverson
    It's really interesting to me that Flock was the straw that broke the surveillance camel's back, and not, I don't know, the home assistant devices from trillion-dollar advertising and e-commerce companies that listen to everything in your home.
  • epochbtc
    Flock somehow stumbled into a business model that both the left and right politically-leaning groups in the US can join together in hating. That's not easy to do!
  • pseudony
    Well, that would be avoidable if people applied the Mitchell and Webb test, asking themselves “are we the baddies?”.If you know you are and don’t care, culture fit ! :)
  • cush
    Is YC seriously still invested in this trash?
  • jsrozner
    Shame is the best driver of social change (see, e.g., Rob Reich's The Common Good).Now we just need the same shame for broader surveillance capitalism (Google, Facebook, AI companies, etc).
  • shevy-java
    That's great that they are quitting. It is not ethical to spy on fellow people.
  • dlcarrier
    I wonder how much of the bad sentiment is from Flock being used as an excuse for government agencies to blatantly violate the fourth amendment. If the data they collect could only be accessed for specific individuals, after a warrant is issued, I don't think the general public would care as much about the company hosting the equipment.
  • erelong
    Shut down, rebrand, try some different approach to security servicesBeing a magnet of attention as a despised surveillance corp has to be tiring
  • anon
    undefined
  • ViktorRay
    Flock was a startup that was funded by Y Combinator. Paul Graham and the other Y Combinator people provided expertise and advice to them throughout their whole journey.I wonder what Paul Graham says to the Flock executives now?
  • ChrisArchitect
  • smt88
    How could those innocent employees have predicted that helping to build out a surveillance state would make them unpopular?
  • ICHx
    there will be another flock
  • ck2
    have a conscious when trying to do immoral things will never work outI mean look at NSA, Presidency, etc. "no conscious, no problem!"Just "other" victims and imply they are all criminals somehow someway and you can dismiss any feeling of doing wrong
  • Analemma_
    Unfortunately the selection effect here means that the remaining employees are gonna be super committed to thinking Flock is a good thing for the world, and will double-down on being defensive and angry any time Flock is challenged.