Among all the AI ads that ran during Super Bowl LX coverage from California, one had homeowners on edge. The commercial, advertising the Ring camera, shared a surprising new feature. While monitoring your front yard, it can also now find lost dogs wandering in the neighborhood. However, many people are wondering what else this borderline-invasive technology will be tracking.
The feature, called “Search Party,” locates lost dogs by analyzing movement picked up by the Ring camera. Using cutting-edge AI, it then reports back when anything resembling a dog or animal is recorded. Ring owners can then share the footage among other users. While the feature has been successful in reuniting dogs with their owners, the camera’s potential to see beyond dogs has people concerned. The fact that Ring is an Amazon brand does not offer much reassurance to users.
“Ask my wife, this immediately scared me. She says, ‘That’s cool! They can find a lost pet.’ I said ‘No…. That just means that Ring itself can access and search for anything they please whenever they want.’ And who knows who they’re going to give it to,” says one Redditor. Another replied with a warning, saying, “They use it now with ICE, do not buy this or any Google thing.” This sentiment was echoed in hundreds of comments, each questioning the privacy violations that accompany this new feature.
Fahrenheit 451 Come to Life
“They’re already using it for more. They have a partnership with Flock. Ring cameras are 100% feeding data into the Palantir and ICE pipelines,” one person comments. In the video shared all over Reddit, the biggest question is: What happens when someone uploads a photo that isn’t of a lost dog? One user makes this point, saying, “Yeah, here’s my lost dog…uploads a photo of the ex they’re stalking. This is not okay.”
Some also commented on who technically owns the footage recorded by Ring cameras. “These stories have been on the news for years. To summarize, if the system uses cloud storage, you don’t own it; the company does. This means police can, for instance, ask Ring to provide your camera footage without a warrant, since you agreed to it in the TOS. The only way you own the footage is if it’s stored on a hard drive in your house,” says one Redditor.
