Georgia Tech students demand Flock off campus

Atlanta, GA – On October 7, Georgia Tech Students for a Democratic Society led a march to demand Flock technology be removed from campus. About 40 students, holding signs against mass surveillance, gathered on Tech Green and marched to each gunshot detector and automated license plate reader camera on campus.

Speakers discussed Flock’s specific connections to Georgia Tech and the harms of mass surveillance in the U.S. as well as in Palestine. Chants at the march included “From Palestine to USA, mass surveillance go away!” and “What do we want? Flock off campus! When do we want it? Now!”

“The CEO and founders of Flock, Garrett Langley, Matt Feury and Paige Todd, are alumni, and the headquarters are right here in Atlanta. We were the first university in the state to use Flock’s drone first responders,” explained Andrew Sarphie, a member of SDS. “We don’t know who can access the data they collect. Over 4000 agencies in Atlanta were able to conduct millions of searches from these cameras last year alone, and Flock can share that data with agencies around the country.”

Sarphie continued, “We know this technology has aided ICE kidnappings and is being abused by police officers to stalk and harass community members. We want Flock, and any other AI surveillance, off Georgia Tech’s campus for good.”

The speaker from the student group Jackets for Palestine stated, “Israel has subjected Palestinians to relentless surveillance and inhuman study. Surveillance cameras turn the survival instincts of Palestinians under genocide into data points. The field is the horror of the genocide that Palestinians themselves live through. Their suffering becomes part of the process through which these technologies are developed and given market value. Once their algorithms are developed and their data is refined, they are then sold off to the highest bidder.”

She added, “Here in America we cannot look at all the advancements of this technology with naivety. Because before that technology reached us, it was tested and its producers have always known exactly what it was capable of.”

At the end of the march, YDSA called for students to attend Georgia Tech PD’s “Ask the Chief” event to increase the pressure on Georgia Tech to protect students’ privacy rights.

Georgia Tech students are not satisfied with the campus police’s vague promise that this technology increases safety on campus. SDS will continue to demand Flock’s removal until every camera is gone.

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