Privacy is officially dead and everyone's just cool with it?

So apparently my city is putting up more of those Herd license plate cameras. Every intersection is turning into a surveillance checkpoint, and people are actually celebrating it because somebody told them it'll reduce crime. They're just recording us like cattle. Guess that's why they're called Herd...

Between those things, facial recognition, data brokers, and every app on your phone collecting your location, you practically need permission to leave your house without somebody knowing about it.

And don't even get me started on how much information people voluntarily hand over.

Anybody else noticing how ridiculous this is getting?

bro my neighbor installed 4 cameras on his house. FOUR. one of them points directly at my driveway.

dude's got more surveillance than a federal prison and still gets his amazon packages stolen lmaooo

Plot twist: he's the one stealing the packages. 📦👀

Collecting evidence against himself in 4K 💀

YO THIS IS WHAT I BEEN SAYING

everybody worried about cameras but nobody talking about the keys to their whole digital kingdoms being out there on the internet

i was looking through some repos the other day, and the amount who just leave them out in the open? right there in the files? anybody could find that!

and now we got these herd cameras everywhere collecting license plates. you telling me they cant connect all that together somehow???

something ain't right

HOLD ON. What repository are we talking about here?

There are perfectly legitimate reasons for public keys to be stored in repositories. Happens all the time.

Not saying I know anything about the particular repository you're referring to. Just making a general observation.

Also, how exactly are you connecting this to license plate cameras?

im not naming names man. i just saw it when i was looking through some code.

but think about it. your keys for the PUBLIC... herd cameras on PUBLIC roads. both got public information. right there in the name!

what if they're taking those keys and matching them to people driving around? then they know who you are AND where you been.

im just connecting dots here

bestie those dots are in different ZIP codes

Uh, public keys aren't meant to be private. That's kind of the entire point.

I put public keys in my email so people know it's me sending them sometimes. Sometimes its there by default on some repos. Other people are supposed to be able to see it. The private key is the one you need to protect.

Unless someone committed the private key too, which would be a completely different problem.

Not sure what any of this has to do with Herd cameras though. Feels like one of those conspiracy boards from The X-Files.

ok but if they got ONE key cant they figure out the OTHER??? Get real!
why even call it a KEY if everybody supposed to have it? Weird flex if you ask me.

and im telling you those cameras are collecting way more than plates. they got computers in them. computers can do stuff.

No, not with properly implemented modern cryptography.
The public key lets people encrypt messages for you or verify your signatures, depending on what it's used for. It doesn't let them calculate your private key in any practical sense.
Think of it like your address. Someone knowing where to send you mail doesn't mean they have a key to your front door.
Although I guess the cameras could watch the mailman deliver it. lol

see now you bringing the mailman into it too
thats THREE things collecting information about us

SOMEONE TAKE HIS KEYBOARD AWAY 💀

For the record, there is NOTHING inherently suspicious about a public key appearing in a Git repository.

Anyone who understands basic cryptography knows this.

Now, if someone were to accidentally commit something sensitive, THAT would warrant an investigation. But we have absolutely no reason to believe that's happened.

And frankly, I'm more interested in why we're discussing the contents of internal repositories on a FORUM.

I don't think anyone suggested a private key was exposed. You seem a bit tense, @b1tfr34k. You good?

I'm simply pointing out that people should exercise some discretion when discussing operational matters.

It's called OPSEC.

You'd think that would be obvious around here.

not you having a full blown crisis over a hypothetical repository 💀

I AM NOT HAVING A CRISIS.

Sure, Jan.

The public key thing is a nonissue unless there's some other information in that repository that shouldn't be there.
But the surveillance discussion is actually interesting.

License plate readers become a much bigger privacy problem when you aggregate observations across locations and time. A single camera knowing you passed through an intersection isn't particularly revealing. Hundreds of cameras recording your movements over months? That's a different story.

Combine that with commercial location data and you can potentially reconstruct someone's daily routine.

No need for some elaborate conspiracy involving cryptographic keys.

EXACTLY.
The really disturbing part is that you don't even have to be suspected of anything to end up in these databases.
And how many people actually know who can access that information, how long it's retained, or where it gets shared?
It's not just the cameras. It's the entire ecosystem built around collecting and selling information about people.