The Surveillance State Continues to Grow, From Flock Cameras to Military-AI Partnerships to Kill Switches in Cars

Unfortunately, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, which I wrote about roughly two weeks ago, passed through quietly in Congress as a forty-five-day extension; and although this is not unexpected, given that Republicans and Democrats both unite when it comes to the federal government spying on American citizens, it should make us wake up to the reality that we are living in a surveillance state that will never be terminated until we stand up and stop it. However, Section 702 is an old post-9-11 measure that gets reissued time and time again, and new methods to monitor citizens and steal our privacy are beginning to pop up all around us.

Many municipalities, counties, and homeowners’ associations, and even Lowe’s and Home Depot, are beginning to install license plate-reading cameras and drones, based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), in order to supposedly assist law enforcement in tracking down criminals and keeping communities safe. Flock Group Inc. (Flock Safety) has even proposed partnering with Amazon’s Ring to help find lost puppies (like in the Super Bowl advertisement that attempted to normalize this type of system), but Ring withdrew after public backlash over privacy concerns. Flock cameras are added to strategic locations to deter and solve crimes related to theft (including of mail and packages), vandalism, shootings, and kidnappings, and it can even deploy drones to follow fleeing suspects in a car chase. It all sounds so great. Everyone wants safer communities, but what is the cost of having a surveillance system that tracks all of our vehicles (and persons)?

These expensive (to taxpayers) Flock cameras take pictures of the details of a car (including color, cracks in the body, condition of the license plate, and make and model) that can then be stored in a database (like the Cloud) and utilized by local law enforcement (the images are supposed to be erased after thirty days, but you know how that goes). Although there has been public outcry about this that has prevented many locations from being able to implement the technology (that is, the contracts have been cancelled because the people do not want it), in places where these devices have already been installed, citizens are beginning to speak out against them and demand state laws limiting their usage and lawsuits when abuse occurs. According to Deflock, which is a website aimed at informing people about these devices, reports that there are currently 93,911 of these cameras nationwide (and growing).

There has also been abuse by police officers using the cameras for illegitimate purposes, and there is the option for local law enforcement to betray the people and share data with the federal government, even using the database to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Flock claims that it does not share its data with federal agencies, but yet, it added a pilot program that permitted Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to invite local law enforcement to join the club and share information. Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat – Oregon) revealed that the company has expanded this access to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Regardless of whether these Fourth Amendment-violating cameras have backlash or not, governments will find ways around them to expand the surveillance state against the will of the people. We are forever being tracked.

In order to “streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments,” the Department of Defense (DoD, or now, the Department of War) has partnered with Google, OpenAI, SpaceX, Nvidia, Reflection AI, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle (the eighth to join the list) to integrate an AI system into intelligence gathering, drone warfare, and classified information systems. Part of this will be a $54 billion project to develop new autonomous weapons that will be able to fire on an enemy without any human input, despite constitutional or human rights concerns. However, the largest concern is that of privacy and surveillance of American citizens.

In fact, when Anthropic (another AI company) raised privacy fears of the government using their technology for “any lawful purpose,” the Donald Trump administration retaliated by terminating use of the company’s products (with the exception of Mythos), and Secretary of Defense (War) responded with the idea that limiting the government’s use of the technology would be like “Boeing giving us airplanes and telling us who we can shoot at” (Anthropic was arbitrarily classified as a “supply chain risk”). Except, this is not Anthropic limiting military capabilities, but rather, it is an attempt to restrict unconstitutional actions, which should be a given in a supposedly free country (the company pushed back with a lawsuit). Because of Hegseth’s comments, it now appears extremely likely, that this new partnership between the government and corporations (fascist non-capitalistic arrangement) will result in mass surveillance of citizens, in addition to the ability of AI to decide when humans are killed or detained. As a society, we now celebrate AI as a grand human achievement, and yet, it has the potential to be used for sinister purposes, especially with regard to domestic spying (see also my article about Palantir).

Secretly tucked away in President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which Democrats praised as one of the greatest legislative accomplishments, was a mandate that by 2027, all new vehicles must be fitted with infrared-camera technology (sometimes known as “kill switches”) that monitor for signs of driving impairment (things like sweating, ability to walk up to the car, facial expressions, iris and pupil changes, and heart rates). On the surface, this sounds wonderful, as most surveillance laws do, because drunk drivers will be prevented from even starting a car and getting into deadly accidents. However, such technology risks putting millions of drivers in positions where they may be stressed or dealing with an emergency and unable to start their car because the system detects symptoms that mimic drunk driving (imagine not being able to get to the hospital to support your wife giving birth because of government interference into your life), and with the technology not currently ready for widespread manufacturing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confessed to Congress that there would still be millions of false positives per year once the technology reaches 99.9% accuracy. Plus, this new regulation is the government saying that everyone is guilty of drunk driving unless they can prove that they are fine to drive (backwards logic of how our system is supposed to work). As House Representative Thomas Massie (Republican – Kentucky) put it, “So, the car dashboard becomes your judge, your jury and your executioner.”

Even if you accept that the violations of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments (lack of due process and no trial for the assumed crime) and personal privacy are necessary to protect people from other drivers, the data sent to the Cloud (or some AI system) through the car’s computer will almost certainly not be protected. At the very least, car companies will sell the data gained from these cameras to corporations, especially insurance companies that make decisions about your risk on the road, and you will have no ability to resist the “terms of service” agreements (they are not agreements if you have no option to opt out). At worst, governments will access this information for criminal investigations in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unwarranted searches and seizures.

If you believe that it is a stretch that governments would access the data from your car’s computer, you have not been paying attention to the 2013 Edward Snowden leaks and beyond. The government will partner with corporations to access the data, or it will demand that companies hand it over. That has been commonplace for years. And, what happens when the government wants to get rid of a whistleblower, journalist, or dissident who is criticizing or exposing government misdeeds? Having the ability to access a car’s computer system and turn off the engine in the middle of someone’s commute would put the driver at risk of injury or death. Say goodbye to suspicious “suicides,” because now, the government can make people that it wants to disappear have “car accidents.”

Disappointingly, President Trump passed this measure through the annual budget in February 2026, and although Representative Massie attempted to kill the “kill switch” by amending the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (H.R. 7148), enough Republicans (fifty-seven) joined Democrats in ensuring that this mandate stayed in place. Representative Chip Roy (Republican – Texas) also made an effort to put through an amendment via the FISA renewal that would limit the use of the device, but that has thus far failed. Through typical politicking, surveillance measures always pass with bipartisan support in the end, as members of the opposite party will join whatever side necessary to ensure that American citizens remain monitored, almost like sinister forces behind the scenes are manipulating the votes to get deep state powers to expand (but that is just a conspiracy theory, and our society has been conditioned to put our noses in the air to them).

Regardless, the ability of the government to disable one’s vehicle mid drive is dangerous and has the potential to violate the First Amendment’s free speech clause, as the government could shut down your vehicle or access its data if you criticize it, and the Third and Ninth Amendments are generally associated, in addition to the Fourth Amendment, as protections of privacy (the government cannot live inside of your home, car, or property and spy on you, as British soldiers were quartered in colonists’ homes). The Second Amendment could also hypothetically be threatened, as gunowners may be subject to more scrutiny and searches and seizures, and the states’ rights (via the Tenth Amendment) of being able to address these things will be blocked, as this is a federal regulation. Basically, the majority of the Bill of Rights could be violated from this one provision implemented because of Joe Biden and later by the Trump administration and Republicans.

With increased technology, Americans will become less “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects [cars],” and the Fourth Amendment has become nothing more than some words put down on paper by the founding fathers. It means absolutely nothing to politicians, officials, corporate partners of the federal government, or the elites who ultimately run our system. King George III has nothing on our modern-day rulers who spy on us while we get distracted by everything except what is actually occurring. We have the illusion of freedom, but in reality, we are nothing more than subjects of the American Empire. Will we continue in our naivety, ignorance, and apathy, or will we finally rise up against a system that keeps us down and monitored? Will we let tyranny ring as we get close to the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence?

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.