*Americans Shrugged Off Surveillance. Then Came Flock and Data Centers.*
Evan Selinger, Divya Ramjee / Sep 17, 2026
Why are so many people across the political spectrum resisting
AI-powering data centers and Flock’s network of AI-infused surveillance
cameras? The national movement—lawsuits, legislative lobbying, protests,
and sabotage—is striking because Americans have already ceded so much
privacy and autonomy to tech companies. We largely complain and shrug
from one techlash to the next, while increasingly invasive technologies
are normalized <https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3432/>.
The answer is /salience/. Data centers have been around for decades, and
privacy scholars and activists have long warned about the dangers of
automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and community surveillance
cameras. But until now, neither had the heightened level of visibility
that makes people less willing to tolerate their harms. Salience is the
driving force behind data center construction projects getting delayed,
paused, and banned
<https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2026/07/27/in-the-us-opposition-to-data-centers-is-growing-and-becomes-political_6755898_19.html?srsltid=AfmBOoojlO_JI9YjTsx2umfyc-k7XqXN_Q336zTBZHFEc8Xlt7Xby5Rj>;
Flock cameras being vandalized
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/25/flock-surveillance-cameras>;
and municipal and agency contracts with Flock being canceled or not
renewed
<https://futurism.com/future-society/flock-dozens-contracts-alprs-controversy-cancellation>.
[...]
continua qui:
https://www.techpolicy.press/americans-shrugged-off-surveillance-then-came-flock-and-data-centers/
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