Blog

Building in public. Privacy deep dives and the journey of building Symvek.

Privacy April 7, 2026

ALPR Cameras: What They Are, Where They Are, and What They Know

Automatic License Plate Readers scan 20 billion plates per month in the US alone. Here's how they work, who operates them, and what data they collect about you.

Privacy April 7, 2026

Best Speed Camera Apps in 2026: What They Tell You (and What They Don't)

Waze, Radarbot, Sygic, and Coyote compared. Plus: what none of them show you about the other 8 types of cameras watching the road.

Privacy April 6, 2026

Most Hidden Camera Detector Apps Are Fake. Here's What Actually Works.

239+ camera detector apps on the App Store. Most use the same trick: show scary 'threats' behind a paywall. We tested the real science behind camera detection.

Privacy April 6, 2026

Introducing the Sentinel Intelligence API

417,000 surveillance cameras across 88 countries, available via REST API. For researchers, journalists, security teams, and anyone building on surveillance data.

Privacy April 6, 2026

Sentinel Mobile: Real-Time Surveillance Alerts on Your Phone

We're building a mobile app that tells you when you're near surveillance cameras. Speed cameras, ALPR readers, facial recognition, and more. All processing on your device.

Privacy April 5, 2026

Why Defence Needs Counter-Surveillance Technology

Modern warfare isn't just about weapons. It's about information. Counter-surveillance technology is the missing layer in allied defence capability.

Privacy April 5, 2026

How We Serve 414,000 Cameras From a 23MB File

The technical architecture behind Sentinel: PMTiles, tippecanoe, MapLibre GL, and a workaround for Cloudflare Workers that nobody asked for.

Privacy April 5, 2026

Surveillance Has No Borders. Neither Does Our Map.

We expanded Sentinel from a US-only tool to a 21-country surveillance awareness map. Here's why global coverage matters for personal security.

Privacy April 5, 2026

We Mapped 414,000 Surveillance Cameras Across 21 Countries

We aggregated government open data, community mapping, and public databases from 21 countries into the largest open surveillance awareness map. The results are sobering.

Privacy April 1, 2026

Cookie Consent Is Broken

Cookie banners are designed to make you click Accept, and the entire compliance industry profits from it.

Privacy April 1, 2026

Shield vs uBlock Origin vs Privacy Badger: What Actually Does What

An honest comparison of browser privacy tools, where they overlap, and why the best setup uses more than one.

Privacy April 1, 2026

What Trackers Actually Know About You

A single site visit reveals more about you than you think, and none of it requires cookies.

Privacy April 1, 2026

Your Privacy Score Is Probably an F

We scored popular sites across news, shopping, and social media, and the results are bad.

Privacy March 31, 2026

Building a Browser Extension That Collects Nothing

Zero data collection sounds simple until you try to build a product around it.

Privacy March 31, 2026

The Counter-Surveillance Gap

The surveillance economy is $600B+, the defensive side is eight disconnected tools with no intelligence layer.

Founder March 30, 2026

Why I Started a Defence Technology Company

After getting laid off, I started building layered defence systems for people and organizations. Here is why.