Proton hosts Flock map revealing over 300k cameras, defying cease-and-desist

tomshardware.com

64 points·ryan_j_naughton··9 comments

Since the article's link is actually a Proton ad, here's the actual link: https://proton.me/flock-camera-map

Posted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50222302

335k cameras (image in link shows that number)..that is so many, it is hard to imagine.

Such a large spy network on the populace, I wonder if we have this problem in Sydney.

Is there a legal path to loading these data into OpenStreetMap?

Either they were published with a license compatible with ODbL, or there is written permission from the rights holder to import them into OSM, i strongly doubt it.

What sort of legal case does flock have for something people are mapping out in public?

Their claim, rightly or wrongly, is that it came from private data (a researcher got an exposed key and downloaded data with coordinates).

But I think as long as Proton wasn't that researcher, there's no case to argue there.

This is the same legal basis cartographers / mapping providers sit on. You could reach exactly the same result, but the process cost them, and the resultant IP, even if derivable from publicly available info (surveying streets, surveying camera locations) isn’t. They can’t come after people mapping cameras they can see, they can come after people scraping their DB / breaking TOS / accessing systems for which they do not have access rights.

The snapshot here is 10 months old. Most everything near me is incorrect.

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