Amazon Ring’s Super Bowl ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

The ring is new Search party feature It has once again sparked a backlash For the company. A 30 second ad Which aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl showed Ring cameras “surveilling” neighborhoods to locate a missing dog. In the current political climate, a prime-time ad celebrating neighborhood watch has struck a chord

People expressed their concerns Across social media, Ring’s AI-powered technology could soon be used to identify dogs to hunt for humans. Combined with Ring rolling out its new facial recognition capabilities, it seems like a short leap to turn its pet-finding feature into a tool for state surveillance.

Privacy expert Chris Gilliard 404 Media said That the ad was “a clumsy attempt by Ring to put a baby face on a somewhat dystopian reality: widespread network surveillance by a company with cozy relationships with law enforcement and other equally invasive surveillance companies.”

Concerns focus on Amazon-owned Ring’s Partnership with Flock Safetya surveillance technology company that has contracts with law enforcement authorities for the use of automated license plate readers and video surveillance systems.

The partnership connects Ring’s massive residential camera network with an organization that has done just that He allowed ICE access to the data From her king National camera network.

“It’s definitely not about dogs, it’s about mass surveillance,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) Published on X. An outspoken critic of Ring Relations with law enforcementMarkey has pushed for more transparency in… Ring’s communications with law enforcementalong with stronger privacy protection for consumers.

Comments on the ad’s YouTube video ranged from “This is a big problem disguised as a solution” to “Clever way to highlight people in mass surveillance.” Video: Ring

Ring spokeswoman Emma Daniels said Edge Which Search party It is designed to match photos of dogs and is “unable to process human biometrics.” Additionally, it confirms that the Familiar Faces feature is separate from Search Party. She said it works at the individual account level, and there is no group sharing as with Search Party.

While familiar faces are subscribeable to each user, so is Search Party Enabled by default On any third-party camera enrolled in your Ring subscription plan. It works by using artificial intelligence to scan footage into the cloud for the missing dog once it’s owned Upload a photo to Ring’s Neighbors app. If a match is found, Ring alerts the camera owner, who can then choose to share the video or notify the owner through the app.

“These are not tools for mass surveillance,” Daniels said. “We are building the appropriate guardrails, and we are very transparent about them.” Although this may be the case today, I asked if Ring cameras could one day be used to search for people specifically. “The way these features were built, they are not able to do that today,” she said. “We don’t comment on feature roadmaps, but I have no knowledge or indication that we’re building features like this at this point.”

Ring users can currently share footage from their cameras with local law enforcement during an active investigation through a feature called Community requests. Unlike Previous Ring Police Partnershipscommunity demand passes through external companies – Saeq Exxon Company And soon a flock. “The reason we do this is because third-party evidence management systems provide a more secure chain of custody,” Daniels says, adding that if a user declines a request, no one will be notified.

The company maintains that neither the government nor law enforcement authorities have access to its network, and that snapshots are only shared by users or in response to a message. Legal request. Daniels reiterated what the company had previously said Edgethat she has There are no partnerships with ICE or any other federal agencyYou can see all the requests that agencies have placed in their Neighbors app profile, he said.

In addition, Herd integration is currently indirect, Although Daniels did not have any update on the company’s plans for the partnership following the backlash. She referred me to the company’s previous response. “As we explore the integration, we will ensure that the feature is designed for use by local public safety agencies only — which is what the software was designed to do.”

The problem is that there’s nothing stopping local agencies from sharing the footage with federal agencies. And while the Super Bowl ad featured intimate photos of a girl reunited with her puppy, the leap to this technology that can track people in your neighborhood is still very small. Combined with government overreach, it’s not hard to imagine how a powerful network of AI-powered cameras goes from searching for lost dogs to hunting people.

And he has the ring History of partnership with the police. While it may I blinked Some of that in recent years, since the return of founder Jimmy Siminoff, the company has done so It renewed its focus on using its products to prevent crime.

Semenov said he came back because The possibilities brought by artificial intelligence. With this technology, he believes neighborhood cameras could be used virtually “Eliminate crime” Within a year. Given these stated goals and the new capabilities that AI can provide, why isn’t Ring planning to add some form of people-hunting party to its cameras?

Eliminating crime is an admirable goal, but history has shown that tools capable of large-scale surveillance are rarely limited to their original purpose. Ring here has a responsibility to protect its users, which it says it does. But ultimately, it’s about how much you can trust the company – and the company you keep – and never overstep it. If Ring hides its ambitions behind our instincts to protect our furry friends, that trust will be hard to find.