Unverified Flock Cameras Causing Mass Panic
I'm making this post partly to raise awareness and partly to express frustration regarding the increasing attention being placed on "Flock Cameras" specifically in Canada, and why unverified OSM data is making the problem worse.
I'm sure everyone is aware of the flock camera situation in the States and the increasingly political discussion surrounding them. What I've noticed over the past few weeks is some anonymous users have begun adding these "flock cameras" to various points in Canada (despite there being no clear evidence that flock is installing any infrastructure here).
Here are a few examples (though there are many more):
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/14015608501
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/14086528901
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/14070964201
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/14053445101
These unverified surveillance nodes from brand new users (contributing directly from deflock and panopti websites) have been the subject of mass hysteria in several community facebook groups and subreddits I am a part of.
Part of the issue is that panopti renders any node tagged with surveillance=public, leading many to believe that "they're installing flock cameras everywhere". I've seen some people mistakenly claiming the ALPR cameras along the 407 ETR in Ontario are flock cameras, which is not the case at all.
I don't think there's a perfect solution, but I wanted to open up a discussion on this issue because it doesn't sit right with me to see people FREAKING out over something that does not exist. My hope would be that panopti and deflock would be clearer about why OSM as a data source is simply not authoritative, and I implore any mappers to watch out for these unverified cameras being added in their local areas, try to lay eyes on what is on the ground to fix any potential errors!