The proliferation of traffic surveillance cameras is inspiring a nationwide backlash. Many people see them as intrusive and antithetical to privacy and personal liberty.
So some are taking matters into their own hands using methods of varying effectiveness and legality.
A Facebook Reel of a woman driving and smiling has been watched nearly 2 million times because it targets the anxiety many have about our growing surveillance culture. A text overlay describes a hardware-store aerosol that some drivers spray on their license plates in the belief it makes it impossible for traffic cameras to read license plates after dark.
Kamilah Burke Asafa, a health and wellness coach who posts about events in her life and her business, posted the Reel.
"Imagine being the type of person that has such a lack of trust for the government that you would use Rust-Oleum 214944 reflective spray from Amazon on your license plates so the IR light, toll, or Flock cameras can't read it at night," the caption reads. "Society is really something."
