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Proton hosts Flock map revealing over 300,000 cameras, defying cease-and-desist threats against creator โ€” privacy-focused company hosts site on Swiss servers (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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says users have the right to know whoโ€™s recording them

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[โ€“] 34 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

No.

  • MapQuest pulls its data from OpenStreetMap. If you check out the project DeFlock, you'll see how you can get involved if you want. (Or feel free to ask here.) That data isn't MapQuest's to "not share"; it's contributed by volunteers on OpenStreetMap who are boots on the ground working to document them.
  • Proton is hosting a map using data taken from Flock in a data leak.

These are two separate datasets, where one (OSM) is unofficial, incomplete, and volunteer-made while another is the official data as of November 2025.

There are pros and cons to each, but what Proton is trying to fight is that Flock has sent a cease-and-desist to the person who published the leaked data.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    cool, very interesting.

    Proton is hosting a map using data taken from Flock in a data leak. These are two separate datasets, where one (OSM) is unofficial, incomplete, and volunteer-made while another is the official data as of November 2025.

    its 2026... no reason these cant be merged (conceptually). lets work together people!

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  • [โ€“] 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

    no reason these cant be merged (conceptually)

    To be absolutely, 100% clear, do not go to the leaked Flock map and start plopping down cameras in OpenStreetMap where the leak says they are.

    OpenStreetMap uses the Open Database License (ODL), which is a very permissive copyright license. Because the people who maintain it want it to be widely usable. The leaked map, on the other hand, is illegally obtained proprietary data. You might think you're helping, but you're in fact polluting the dataset and showing immense disrespect for the people who actually go out and work to survey/use datasets with compatible licenses. If you're wanting to help with ALPRs specifically, I again highly recommend checking out DeFlock which heavily streamlines this.

    If you want to look at the leaked data to decide on places to survey (either in-person or via compatible street-level imagery like on Mapillary) and use that survey as your source, that's your prerogative. It's also easy to simply note down ALPRs you see in your day-to-day-life and see if they're already present on the map.

    Otherwise, though, please don't bother. It's about as respectful (maybe even less so) as making a documentation PR to an open-source project where all you did is run it through an AI for a rewrite. If we wanted that, we would simply have done it ourselves already.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    why the fuck would you dirty the og datasets wtafiwwy??

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 child)

    Sorry, I got the impression that this is what you might've been referring to (or what someone else would've read it as) when you called for merging the two datasets.

    Edit: To clarify, I've seen my fair share of people on Wikipedia in my day whose first instinct is that this Wikipedia article would be so much better if they just plagiarized it from somewhere else. I've been traumatized too many times; nothing against you specifically.

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