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Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Adversarial Fashion' created by Cybersecurity professional and designer Kate Rose is taking on Flock cameras and their all-seeing web:
This surveillance-disrupting clothing turns your shirt into a tool that pollutes mass tracking databases.
— Shining Science (@ShiningScience) August 19, 2026
Cybersecurity professional and designer Kate Rose has developed "adversarial fashion"—garments printed with patterns of repeating, fake license plates designed to confuse… pic.twitter.com/vxmdrZkaMN
Cybersecurity professional and designer Kate Rose has developed "adversarial fashion"—garments printed with patterns of repeating, fake license plates designed to confuse Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs).These surveillance systems, widely used by law enforcement and private security companies like Flock Safety, scan environments for rectangular shapes and combinations of alphanumeric characters.
When the system detects what it believes is a plate, it logs the data alongside the exact time and location. By tricking these systems into identifying false plates on clothing, Rose's designs inject "junk" data directly into tracking networks, actively diluting the accuracy of automated surveillance databases.
Science fiction fans recall the ugly t-shirts from the 2010 novel Zero History by William Gibson:
“What’s that?” she asked. “The ugliest T-shirt in the world,” he said, and kissed her cheek.
“The Bollards will be disappointed,” she said, coming in and closing the door. “I thought they’d had me sleeping in that.”
“So ugly that digital cameras forget they’ve seen it.”
“Cameras can see it. The surveillance cameras can all see it, but then they forget they’ve seen it.”
“Why?”
“Because their architecture tells them to forget it, and anyone who’s wearing it as well. They forget the figure wearing the ugly T-shirt.
For even earlier takes on the general idea that there are patterns that can fool artificial intelligences (AIs) or pattern recognition systems (even human ones), see Van Goom's Gambit from Van Goom's Gambit (1966) by Victor Contoski and BLIT (Secret Basilisk) from BLIT by David Langford.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 8/3/2026)
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