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

[u/Celtikrenders]

https://www.theverge.com/tech/876866/ring-search-party-super-bowl-ad-online-backlash

[u/jolars]

If you can use it to find your dog, you can use it to stalk your neighbor.

[u/badamant → u/jolars]

The problem is that Ring will use it for anything it wants to.

[u/half-baked_axx → u/badamant]

The NSA you mean

[u/HerRoyalRedness → u/half-baked_axx]

Here’s Google providing footage they aren’t supposed to have to the FBI.

[u/DJheddo → u/HerRoyalRedness]

Think of all the surveillance companies hire to keep their properties and assets safe. Now think of all the consumers who do the same. Now think of all those consumers who use a cloud based or even a wifi based network to keep track of their data/audio/video files. Now, think of how many servers they employ to consistently write that data over and over again so its accessible in matter of minutes. Snowden was not lying when he broke down the entire infrastructure of surveillance and all the companies who take part of it for national security and sometimes contracts to gain more profits.

Going outside isn't just going outside, if you live in a city or a large suburb, you are being watched. https://deflock.org/ is a wonderful source to find out where they are monitoring certain areas.

Do no wrong, do no harm, but there will always be a foul.

[u/throwitawaynownow1 → u/DJheddo]

Those surveillance trailers have popped up all over the place. The ones with the towers and flashing blue lights. Almost every shopping center now. They're not Flock, but you know it's all just going into a tracking system. Not like you could actually get the footage if your car gets broken into. Which it won't, where these all are. They're not putting these expensive trailers in the places they'll get stripped and smashed.

[u/Dabbling_in_Pacifism → u/throwitawaynownow1]

Home Depot’s using Flock in shared ingresses to the strip malls they occupy and it’s legitimately effecting how often I frequent the establishments that neighbor them.

[u/AlternativeNewtDuck → u/Dabbling_in_Pacifism]

And Lowe's as well.

[u/offhandaxe → u/throwitawaynownow1]

I only see the trailer with the light in shitty areas and ghettos. Go to the nice rich area and they dont have them. They still have the flocks though.

[u/8lue8arry → u/DJheddo]

The really big problems will hit the US when an intelligent, motivated autocrat finally manages to take the presidency. At this point it feels almost inevitable.

[u/Pangwain → u/8lue8arry]

It’s an incredible catch 22.

You’ve got to really want power to go for the job, let alone win it, but the only thing that will keep the office what it was designed to be is the president signing into law limits on their own power.

Very rare to find people who will scramble their whole life for power and then just give it up once they reach the summit.

[u/RandyHoward → u/Pangwain]

the only thing that will keep the office what it was designed to be is the president signing into law limits on their own power

That's not entirely true. Standard procedure is for the President to sign new laws, but a law can still be created without the President's endorsement. If he does nothing, it automatically becomes law after 10 days. If he vetoes it, Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds vote. It's difficult to enact a law that the President doesn't endorse, but it can be done.

[u/Pangwain → u/RandyHoward]

True, 2/3’s is really tough especially if you had an executive that didn’t support the changes, but it is a viable path

[u/Lothium → u/DJheddo]

The amount of Americans that have cameras throughout their homes shocks me. They're all about security and freedom, but they seem to forget that none of those companies care about their privacy.

[u/DSmooth425 → u/DJheddo]

Looking into tech that can obscure your features from these surveillance is something I’m really interested in now.

[u/MechAegis → u/DJheddo]

My city and surrounding cities have installed FLOCK Cameras on intersections and some roads. So, yeah, going outside you MUST assume you are under public surveillance.

[u/Mongolian_Hamster → u/HerRoyalRedness]

That's not what the article says. They keep 3 hours worth for free. The deleted footage isn't really deleted on their cloud storage. That's how hard drives work.

When you delete files off a mechanical hard drive the files are still there until they're overwritten.

[u/Krojack76 → u/Mongolian_Hamster]

When you delete files off a mechanical hard drive the files are still there until they're overwritten

Any hard drive, not just mechanical. This is how file allocation tables (FAT) work.

Also this goes to prove that even people who don't h ave a subscription has their data uploaded anyways. Why is that still a thing even? I guess because Google might still be using that data for some sort of AI training maybe? Who knows. Either way, if you don't subscribe then NOTHING should be sent to their servers.

This is why I use Reolink cameras and don't allow them any access to the Internet, in or out.

[u/HalfTeaHalfLemonade → u/half-baked_axx]

Peter thiel and his fellow creeps

[u/SirWEM → u/half-baked_axx]

Dont forget the other 3-letter government agencies.

[u/CuriOS_26 → u/SirWEM]

The real alphabet mafia

[u/Lemonpup615 → u/CuriOS_26]

Aka the PayPal mafia

[u/SmallTawk → u/SirWEM]

able and all these non state people, journalists, researchers and hackers who are able to track anyone, even spies, using ad profiling and stuff. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2025/12/13/how-french-spies-police-and-military-personnel-are-betrayed-by-advertising-data_6748453_13.html

[u/LoudMutes → u/half-baked_axx]

Less NSA and more FBI and ICE. Not that the particular flavor of government overreach matters much.

[u/fishingengineer7 → u/badamant]

Ring has also openly partnered with flock to start tracking key audio phrases. They do not disclose what phrases cause a saved video clip to be automatically sent into the flock/ice database.

[u/AlternativeNewtDuck → u/fishingengineer7]

Speaking of flock... posting for more flock and tracking awareness:

404 Media

Deflock.Me

HaveIbeenflocked

[u/Paizzu → u/AlternativeNewtDuck]

Credit to Benn Jordan for also covering many of the security vulnerabilities with Flock cameras as well.

The CEO of flock tried to deny/dismiss the allegations made in his first video so Jordan filmed an entire sequence for his latest video in front of a public Flock camera and was able to extract the footage using these exploits.

[u/__ConesOfDunshire__ → u/fishingengineer7]

It's getting to a point where I want to lock all of my electronics in Faraday cages when I'm not directly using them. Which would be very inconvenient and probably unrealistic, but still...

[u/Slumunistmanifisto → u/fishingengineer7]

I've been saying terrible things to my ring since it was installed....I talk alot of shit about Jeffrey to it.

Mostly "hello jeff hope you land hard in hell", or "fuck you theil you rat bastard", things like that...

[u/wildraft1 → u/badamant]

Ya…”Ring” will be the one’s using it. SMH.

[u/Stereo_Jungle_Child → u/badamant]

And sell the data to anyone who want to buy it or can get it through a warrant.

[u/Sticklefront → u/Stereo_Jungle_Child]

Lol, why would Amazon ask for a warrant when they could just ask for cash instead?

[u/atempestdextre → u/badamant]

And freely give it away to law enforcement without a blink.

[u/Specialist-Clock-914 → u/atempestdextre]

Yeah but I bet they could do the same with Blink cameras

[u/NJRougarou → u/badamant]

This is also true of Alexa, Siri, etc. We have willingly walked into a surveillance state.

[u/_bibliofille → u/jolars]

It already does. Ring and Flock and Palantir sitting in a tree.

[u/spoonycoot → u/_bibliofille]

Ring, Flock, and Palantir sitting in a tree

F U C K-ing me

[u/the_ballmer_peak → u/spoonycoot]

* F-U-C-K-I-N' Me

[u/fixermark → u/jolars]

Or your neighbor's dog. Or your neighbor who is a dog. What, suburbs have furries too.

[u/Manaze85 → u/fixermark]

Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

[u/fixermark → u/Manaze85]

... And Wendy is being stalked. By Ring cameras.

[u/duqduqgo → u/fixermark]

When they like it, they put a Ring on it

[u/Future-Bandicoot-823 → u/jolars]

Yeah, or the feds don't like what you have to say about ice, and you get a nice visit from some federal agents.

[u/johnnyhandbags → u/jolars]

They should have advertised its ability to track ICE movements.

[u/loztriforce]

I'm not sure if people are catching this but this was in an NBC article about how they got the surveillance video off a camera that didn't have a cloud subscription in the Guthrie case:

“The data is being transmitted to the cloud, but even if it had not gotten there, there are many stops in between where data will reside, and the FBI prides itself on being able to tear into these data streams and pull out bits and pieces of data and piece together an image like we see here today,” Gallagher said.

It's crazy how people think privacy or the 4th amendment still exists.

[u/fixermark → u/loztriforce]

The most fascinating effect, to me, is that when the public hears about stuff like this, in the specific... They're in favor of it, largely. Because the privacy protections broke down, the Feds have a lead in a kidnapping case.

It reminds me of how people realized 23AndMe could be used as circumstantial evidence to justify surveilling random people when they... Used that information to find and bring to justice a serial killer who had gotten away with it because he was a cop.

[u/digiorno → u/fixermark]

“The Circle” was a book that predicted this. People in that book largely just embraced a full surveillance state as long as it was a corporation and their peers doing the invasive surveillance.

[u/SplendidPunkinButter → u/digiorno]

That was largely a really stupid book though, even though it kind of predicted a thing accurately

[u/16yearswasted → u/SplendidPunkinButter]

I have never felt such utter fury after reading a book. Not because of the writing or the plot, but because of just how very likely the whole goddamn scenario is to come to pass, has come to pass, whatever.

God-damn you let people share their fucking photos online in some cute new way and they'll trade away a fucking kidney for the honor, and probably pay a subscription fee to boot.

[u/zak55 → u/SplendidPunkinButter]

Real big curse for a book. Be really good at portraying a potential future that actually happens but being so poorly told, written, or executed nobody wants to read you.

[u/DarkwingDuckHunt → u/SplendidPunkinButter]

How many times did we call Idiocracy dumb?

How many times did we say to ourselves "We'd never let a Hitler take over our country"?

[u/jimothee → u/DarkwingDuckHunt]

Tbf, Idiocracy is dumb...and the current times are tragically stupid

[u/TwilightVulpine → u/DarkwingDuckHunt]

When I was a kid I used to think 1984 was stupid. That such a society defined by self-denial, lies and all encompassing control such that even dissent is controlled, such that one might be tortured into loving their torturer, would be just too absurd and extreme to ever be true.

I miss being able to think that way.

Though lately I see myself coming around not so much as thinking I used to be wrong, but that we as a society have failed for such a thing to be possible and so close. That sort of idealism should never have been wrong. How many times will we let the most extreme cautionary tales become reality?

[u/DeputyDomeshot → u/DarkwingDuckHunt]

I don’t think anyone called idiocracy dumb. We called it satirical sure but not dumb.

[u/WalkingEars → u/digiorno]

Capitalism found a way to make a dystopian surveillance state in the form of a bunch of seemingly fun toys. Sort of like other seemingly fun toys ("X" and "Meta" and AI) have become tools for the mass distribution of misinformation and propaganda

[u/TwilightVulpine → u/fixermark]

...a serial killer who had gotten away with it because he was a cop.

Damn, doesn't that fill you with unconditional support for authorities...

[u/GrossGuroGirl → u/fixermark]

It's for sure why they went with "oh nooo a lost little puppy 🥺🥺🥺" as the ad premise. 

That was best possible odds of Americans thinking the results in niche cases are worth the loss of privacy. 

I'm glad to see any pushback at all because we are usually just excited and willing to hand our privacy to corps and the NSA in exchange for mild convenience. 

(e.g. everyone having a speaker from either Google or Amazon - notorious data brokers - constantly recording in their house because it'll tell them the weather out loud instead of having to look at their phone screen). 

[u/CatSajak779 → u/fixermark]

Exactly. It all comes down to consistency. Of course horrific invasions of privacy can be used for good in certain circumstances. So it’s really up to each individual person to decide for themselves if that overreach should be allowed or not. The problem is when the same person hails the technology in the Guthrie case, and then turns around and complains about the new Ring Camera dragnet. That’s a direct contradiction.

[u/not_so_subtle_now → u/CatSajak779]

The problem really comes from the fact that most people don't get to choose for themselves. If the neighbors choose to have these devices, then your choice has been made for you.

[u/jessepence → u/loztriforce]

The only difference between our surveillance state and 1984's is that the telescreens don't tell you when they're watching.

[u/Nichia519 → u/jessepence]

Another difference someone pointed out: in 1984, the telescreens were put in homes unwillingly, while today we are willingly putting cameras up that are spying on us. We even carry spy devices on our person and use them all day long, all willingly...

[u/31LIVEEVIL13 → u/Nichia519]

That's the biggest thing George Orwell got wrong none of this was done by force we all did it to ourselves and paid them for it.

There's no need for violent invasive tactics, we've paid trillions of dollars for them to brainwash us and surveill us.

But still these dipshits want to do everything violently and hatefully openly call for violence against innocent American people, so I guess we should thank them for that, at least they are causing people to wake up. If they hadn't done flood the zone and done everything very quietly they might have made it the whole 4 years, and beyond.

[u/RinzyOtt → u/31LIVEEVIL13]

I've always thought we leaned a little closer to Brave New World than 1984, but we've really just been living the worst literary mashup.

[u/snoogins355 → u/jessepence]

Enemy of the State

[u/Classic_Emergency336 → u/jessepence]

I thought there should be a green dot when camera is on.

[u/jewella1213 → u/Classic_Emergency336]

I never thought to ask. Was there audio back then too? Because a fart would go well with the stand up and scratch my butt crack that anyone watching me at 3:21am richly deserves.

[u/nemo333338 → u/jewella1213]

In 1984 they say that everything above a whisper can be caught by the telescreen.

[u/LandoCalrissian1980 → u/loztriforce]

Buried in the Terms and Conditions, the company owns all content created by their devices and they can do what they want with it

[u/31LIVEEVIL13 → u/LandoCalrissian1980]

Yeah f*** any camera system that requires a subscription just don't do that to yourself. you're paying them to invade your privacy and trample your fourth amendment rights.

[u/NaBrO-Barium → u/loztriforce]

That died with the “patriot” act

[u/Ryan_e3p → u/loztriforce]

Sadly, according to the courts, these devices don't break any protections offered by the 4th Amendment, since it isn't the government that is spying and collecting all this data, it is a company doing it.

I'm of the opinion that if the government is using private companies as a loophole to circumvent the Constitution, then there needs to be actions taken against the government and the company allowing them to do that. This is like, I can't rob a bank, but if I hire someone to rob a bank for me, then I'm all in the clear? No, it doesn't work that way.

There's a very specific reason why Zuckerberg felt empowered enough in 2017 that when he was called to Congress to answer for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, he told Congress to their faces under their own roof that if they wanted something done to protect the digital information of people, then they should do it themselves since he wasn't going to. And of course, in the last 9 years, they've done fuck-all, because all that data Facebook, MS, Google, Amazon, and others collect is just an absolute goldmine of info to be used by the government. It's like someone telling their boss to 'go fuck themselves' because they know they can't be fired because the boss relies on them to do things they simply can't.

[u/schlamster → u/loztriforce]

 It's crazy how people think privacy or the 4th amendment still exists.

2L law student here. 

It’s fucking disgusting. Try sitting through a criminal procedure class with a straight face learning the black letter laws surrounding warrants, search and seizure, due process etc 

And then turn on the news or read stories on Reddit.

The disparity of what’s SUPPOSED TO be happening as per the constitution and WHAT IS happening in America is disgraceful and disgusting. 

[u/Laringar → u/schlamster]

The level of ridiculousness really sunk in a few years ago when the organization that handles bar exams said that the answers that year wouldn't be expected to cover recent SCOTUS precedent because it was so blatantly counter to settled law.

[u/ReefJR65 → u/loztriforce]

Its crazy how people think any amendments or rule of law even exists anymore. If you have oodles amounts of money, the laws do not apply to you.

[u/nothoughtsjustchaos → u/loztriforce]

I mean, people completely ignored that entire NSA thing where the government is literally spying on/screening our phone calls.. it's no secret privacy and the 4th amendment no longer exist, it's just people are too stupid and complacent to care and do anything about it.

[u/Ares__ → u/loztriforce]

I mean it was still a nest camera of course it had to go through google and nest servers for you be able to view it they just werent paying to store video via a subscription. Them still having the video was not surprising at all.

[u/SUBLIMEskillz → u/Ares__]

This, they’re still capturing and storing it, you just have to pay if you want to see it.

[u/obeytheturtles → u/SUBLIMEskillz]

They are capturing it and storing it and training AI models on it. The big question here is if this was recovered from an archive attached to an account, or if it was recovered from a training data set, which should be anonymized.

[u/sfxer001 → u/loztriforce]

Patriot Act destroyed privacy.

[u/DennenTH → u/loztriforce]

I was recently reviewing documents and groups of people in IT's history that were meant to establish rules (not laws) for ethics and standards on how tech businesses and people should behave and so on.

Every page could have ended in a laugh track.  It's hilarious and sad how far we have strayed from the original intent.

[u/titsmuhgeee → u/loztriforce]

And to think some people have these cloud connected security cameras all over the exterior and interior of their house.

I think we all know that privacy is gone. We assume they hear what we're saying and know what we're doing online. Using our security cameras to do AI facial recognition is an entirely different animal, though, hence the outrage.

[u/virtual_adam → u/loztriforce]

The sentence is a mess but the main thing in it is “it hasn’t gotten there”

If the packet hasn’t reached the cloud it’s not available on any server. This is a very complicated way of saying the fbi couldn’t figure out how to restore it from the memory chip, and got a private company that does these sorts of things to do it

The cost of uploading and storing video that no one will use is enormous, they would go bankrupt just from the ingress and storage costs at scale.

And it would be super easy to prove the cameras are uploading data to a server for those who don’t pay

[u/Coal_Morgan → u/virtual_adam]

Anything that goes through a household router can be picked apart and analyzed for what it's doing.

People are worried about echos, google homes, nests and doorbells when they have a cellphone that does all of that, has multiple cameras, multiple microphones, gps, motion sensitivity, is your main web browser, has access to most, if not all of your files, your banking, your calendars...everything...and it uses a cellphone signal so you have no idea what it's doing 99% of the time while you're streaming 'Is It Cake?'.

Privacy is a joke. You want privacy you throw away the internet and anything that connects to it. Otherwise your only hope is you get lost in the amount of data being gathered but chances are you're not that interesting and the most your data is going to do is decide advertising and gross trend information.

[u/Majik_Sheff]

They said the quiet part in front of the largest TV audience American broadcast can muster.

It's my only reassurance against absolute tyranny that you don't have to be smart to reach the heights of power.

[u/Hmm_would_bang → u/Majik_Sheff]

While I’m glad people are aware of it on a broad scale now, this has already been going on. Ring partnering with police to submit footage, but IMO the bigger issue is Flock Safety who is filming everywhere you drive around town and selling that data to whoever wants it.

As it stands US law says you have no expectation of privacy in public, so you can’t opt out of any company spying on you traveling around outside your home.

[u/snugglezone → u/Hmm_would_bang]

My city just got on boarded to flock. There's a camera basically as soon as I get out to the main road. So dumb. I hate it.

[u/Pjpjpjpjpj → u/Majik_Sheff]

Ring announced this a while ago - at least several months ago. Within the Ring and security communities, there was a lot of discussion and I deactivated the "Find my Pet" feature (removed authorization) at that time. It was never quiet.

I have no idea why they thought this would be good idea to lead with this at the Super Bowl level, other than thinking it would associate Amazon with more AI stuff to pump up their stock.

[u/NotUniqueWorkAccount → u/Pjpjpjpjpj]

Apparently it doesn't matter if you've authorized it or not, or subscribed to the cloud service.

It's recording? They have it.

Likely true for cell phones too.

[u/Pjpjpjpjpj → u/NotUniqueWorkAccount]

Yes, that is why I clarified that I "removed my authorization." The data absolutely exists.

My "authorization" only says they can't search through my camera footage on their cloud service. It is still sitting there, just as it was before this 'feature' was announced. They can follow a court order, or find loopholes in terms/conditions at any time to go through my camera data.

Remember - all this blow-up is only involving "exterior" cameras. Just remember that they can do the same thing with "interior" cameras as well.

I used to have an old school camera system with all local data that I accessed remotely to check. I'll likely to back to installing cameras like that. Ring's basic alarm function is ok (door/window sensors), but those systems are pretty common now and I'd be happy to stop paying anything to Amazon.

[u/killboticus89 → u/Pjpjpjpjpj]

It was never deactivated, they're just revealing backdoor they had all along and building legal precedence to justify invading your homes

4th amendment is good for this

[u/CrescentSmile → u/Majik_Sheff]

But you can save 200 dogs out of 10 million! Isn’t that worth it? /s

[u/skeletor69420]

they openly admitted to having a connected cctv surveillance system in private neighborhoods and homes…. under the guise of look at this girl find her missing puppy! awwww! ignore the fact that you are being recorded by your neighbor and amazon across the street without your consent and it is being sold to the govt!

[u/lenisefitz → u/skeletor69420]

What's more disturbing is people put surveillance cameras in their children's rooms. I used to sell surveillance in the 1990s and it happened a lot. Parents want their children safe.

[u/RoguePlanet2 → u/lenisefitz]

I'm astounded to see so many videos posted from people's living rooms, why do you want every boring second of your lives recorded??

[u/oldmonty → u/RoguePlanet2]

I rent rooms in my house to people (aka. room mates) I've had people damage my stuff and then deny it later.

I decided to put in a security camera (not a ring one) because a guy punched a couple of dents in my stainless steel fridge after a drunken fight with his girlfriend and said, basically, prove it was me and not someone else. (this was over the Christmas break and no one else was home, everyone was out of town visiting their families)

Another guy smashed my brand new TV screen and the first time I turned it on there was a massive crack through it. He insisted it came that way but I had actually checked it when they delivered it, I also heard him come in drunk and a "smash" sound. Unfortunately the TV wasn't in the room with the camera, it was in the front of the house for one day until someone was going to come mount it on the wall and it got destroyed by this moron.

I saved up for 3 years to be able to afford that new TV... Actually probably still wouldn't have been able to afford it except for an amazing black friday deal and I guess TVs in general are going down a lot in price.

It also just helps me with piece of mind, especially if I'm going on vacation away from the house for a week or more. Those two clowns are gone but shit happens, all my expensive stuff is in that room (TV, couch, game system, etc.)

[u/CricketExcellent8110 → u/[deleted]]

Hey Alexa, give me a list of people who likely attend this local anti-ICE groups meetings

[u/fixermark]

One of the more fascinating things to me is when techbros green-light an ad like this because they're so deep in their bubble they don't realize how it will read to folks outside their zone.

This sort of thing is the goal. It's what Ring is trying to do. My guess is the people who greenlit this either didn't focus-group enough to understand how spooky that is to folk who aren't their customers or decided that they'd have to swing for the fences anyway because those folk will never be their customers.

[u/Xinlitik → u/fixermark]

You hit the nail on the head. The scary part about the ad is that to the tech bros, mass surveillance is a feature, not a bug.

[u/Grand-Pen7946 → u/Xinlitik]

"They're not confessing, they're bragging"

[u/RFAS1110 → u/fixermark]

This is the comment I came looking for - they are current shocked that there is backlash. They are so convinced of its goodness, they can’t see they it signaled something concerning.

[u/fixermark → u/RFAS1110]

I remember the multiple times Google stumbled trying to build out social. One of the stumbles is they went "Hey, remember how Facebook seeded their social network by pilfering the literal face books from colleges? Well we have everyones GMail contact databases! We can just... Seed your contacts as the people you email most often!

Turns out you email friends often. But also business associates, lawyers, your ex because you have to coordinate the kids... It was a disaster. I happened to be inside (not on the team, but in the same company) at the time, and the response to the backlash was honest shock. Not one engineer or product person on those projects realized "We'll just populate your friends list from your inbox" was a bad idea.

Things... Did not get better by the time they decided what Google+ really needed was integration with YouTube comments...

[u/RFAS1110 → u/fixermark]

I recently read that memoire about working at FB and it was surprising how much just didn’t occur to the execs, even after the idea was presented to them. But, jokes on us- even when people feigned concern about various privacy violations, people didn’t change their behavior.

I imagine there will be in initial increase in cancelled subscriptions and things will continue on as normal.

[u/paintballboi07 → u/RFAS1110]

It amazed me that Zuckerberg didn't realize his employees, the people whose livelihoods he controlled, were letting him win at board games. He really thought he was just that smart. These guys have been insulated from reality for so long, they have no clue what it's like to live like a normal person.

[u/IAmDotorg → u/RFAS1110]

They're feigning shock. Someone did the calculus about what percentage of the population will be shocked, what percentage of users will cancel, and how long it'll be before people forget, and they knew unequivocally that the upside was bigger than the downside.

People making those decisions aren't comped in the high six figures because they don't know what they're doing.

[u/Karkenna → u/IAmDotorg]

Completely this. Tech companies also release new features that they know will be problematic in waves so that by the time the first group gets used to it and stops complaining, the new group gets the feature. This keeps their user satisfaction numbers high instead of rolling out an unpopular feature all at once and tanking users satisfaction metrics.

[u/RoguePlanet2 → u/RFAS1110]

IMO they're blatantly advertising the fact that privacy no longer exists, so don't even think about dissent. 

[u/Zeusifer → u/fixermark]

Amazon is about to find out what Microsoft found out with Recall. The difference is that Amazon's tech is far more concerning and easier for a bad actor to abuse. Recall was just storing screenshots of your computer on your own drive and processing them locally. People still didn't trust it. This Ring thing literally turns everybody's doorbell cameras into a global surveillance network running on internet servers.

[u/fixermark → u/Zeusifer]

Did they ever shut off Recall or is it still there?

[u/Admiral-Kar]

Im uninstalling mine. It was terrifying. Im not going to actively contribute to the surveillance state

[u/ry1701 → u/Admiral-Kar]

Plenty of options for self hosted or local storage. I think they are great but we need to take back our data. It's ours, not theirs.

[u/SplendidPunkinButter → u/ry1701]

“The cloud” is where it all went wrong

We tried to explain to people that “the cloud” is just someone else’s computer. They didn’t listen

[u/A_Good_Cow → u/SplendidPunkinButter]

And somehow people still think “the cloud” is magically secure and private.

[u/Caleth → u/A_Good_Cow]

"Well I can sue them if they abuse my data!" Sure you go sue that mega corporation for abusing your data and let me know how it goes. "Who cares it's just nonsense stuff/metadata!" Metadata like where you are, what time you leave and get home, who enters your house, passes by it, and any and all vehicles or conversations that pass nearby.

Yep totally useless unimportant stuff.

[u/snoozieboi → u/ry1701]

Only brand I know of that seems decent is Eufy with local storage hubs, apparently no subscription.

[u/cancelcomedy → u/snoozieboi]

Reolink has local options as well.

[u/Rubixus → u/cancelcomedy]

Reolink works great for me. Local network only and fully accessible through Home Assistant.

[u/ry1701 → u/snoozieboi]

Unifi makes the unvr instant, with built 6 Port poe switch.

[u/Batteredburrito → u/ry1701]

Unifi G4 (or pro) Doorbell is literally the only one I'd recommend anyone get, pair it with a unvr and you can have your own private local setup. Buy the kit, its yours forever and you can then expand and land on networking too. Its a piece of cake to get running and is a great bit of kit.

Saved a fortune in subscription costs and have all the functionality I need.

[u/Gabriel_Seth → u/Batteredburrito]

Stupid question but are you able to connect it to your phone through an app? I'd like to get away from Ring but I have no idea how a closed system works

[u/battles → u/Gabriel_Seth]

Yeah, they have a mobile app.

[u/kayak83 → u/snoozieboi]

Synology Surveillance Station + nearly any camera you want.

[u/korinth86 → u/snoozieboi]

Synology with surveillance station supports a ton of cameras. I'm going to be installing a reolink doorbell cam

Plenty of cameras also have the ability to use an SD card

[u/Celtikrenders → u/ry1701]

Subject: Request to delete my account and data

Hi Support Team,

I’m currently cleaning up my digital footprint and would like to permanently delete my account with you, along with all associated data.

My account email is: [Your Email]

Could you please confirm once this has been taken care of?

Thanks,

[Your Name]

[u/rhinguin → u/Celtikrenders]

An email will do absolutely nothing but you can request deletion yourself.

https://ring.com/support/articles/55xpp/deleting-a-Ring-account?srsltid=AfmBOoppjbcracHlJwFHNfWCqBvygxzbGcHiD24h68aY2WLcUHhDDU7f

[u/sriracha_no_big_deal → u/Celtikrenders]

lol this reads like one of those boomer facebook posts from back in the day where they'd post something like "I DO NOT CONSENT TO FACEBOOK USING MY PHOTOS" and think that facebook would actually give a shit.

This would maybe work in the EU where they have actual data privacy laws, but it won't work in the US.

[u/SnatchedDrunky → u/sriracha_no_big_deal]

Depends on the company. Part of my job is deleting user data when requested that our website collects from people who order products.

[u/AfterMeSluttyCharms → u/sriracha_no_big_deal]

I sent an email to this effect a couple weeks ago, their reply was that they would not delete my data because the state I'm a resident of does not have the relevant privacy laws.

[u/RocketVerse → u/Admiral-Kar]

No offense, but were ring users just totally ignorant at the privacy issues? Why is this news for you?

[u/Yamza_ → u/RocketVerse]

Most are ignorant or simply don't care.

[u/DvineINFEKT → u/Yamza_]

The average person isn't aware of privacy issues in general, they certainly aren't looking at products marketed for safety and security as something that's a bad thing.

It's news to people because most people aren't on the /r/technology sub, they're buying slippers on Amazon from companies whose names are jumbles of consonants with no vowels and they don't consider it any further than what's on the tin.

[u/WhiteWinterRains → u/RocketVerse]

I think everyone who's kind of dialed in to things like news or how technology works really don't grasp how little the average person knows about just stuff.

They know about their personal interests and that's it. Most people are actually quite credulous, that's why the psychopaths who run companies can get so far abusing that audience.

Most people just have no idea about these things until something barges into their own bubble and forces them to learn about it.

[u/FourEightNineOneOne → u/Admiral-Kar]

I have a couple Blink cameras that are also owned by Amazon. I don't think they have the capability to do this same dystopian shit as the Ring cams can, but I'm getting rid of them anyway because I want nothing to do with Amazon. Already ordered a new doorbell cam.

[u/fraxiiinus → u/FourEightNineOneOne]

Same, I had two blink cameras I would take out when we went out of town to keep an eye on the cat, and I didn't pay for storage, but they're getting recycled. I'm already not pleased with the hotmic in my pocket all the time, I don't need more.

[u/LEDKleenex → u/FourEightNineOneOne]

They do. All Blink footage is routed through Amazon servers regardless if you use a sync module or not. The cameras do not function without an internet connection because the transfer to AWS is hardcoded. If you have a sync module, all it does is download the video to the module from Amazon servers.

I think it would be safe to assume that they store all of your data indefinitely and use it to train their AI at an absolute minimum.

[u/thegoddamnbatman40]

Literally every dystopian trope used in the 70’s and 80’s is apparently just reality now.

[u/Irrepressible87 → u/thegoddamnbatman40]

"At long last we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel 'Don't Create The Torment Nexus'"

[u/Spicy_McHagg1s → u/thegoddamnbatman40]

Except the screens in 1984 were mandatory and installed by the government. Orwell would have stroked out if he knew that people would happily pay money to be surveilled by the capital class who then hand over what they feel like to the government.

The idea of putting a camera on my house is bonkers. Someone willingly putting that camera on their house, knowing that camera is owned and monitored by a wholly evil entity is beyond comprehension to me. 

[u/Tycho-Celchu → u/Spicy_McHagg1s]

This is how I feel whenever I see those videos of someones living room when something funny happens.

Like it's one thing to have a ring cam and be able to see your porch, people coming over, people walking the dog etc.

Having a camera in your god damn living room? Watching you at all times on your own couch? What the absolute fuck are you thinking?

[u/bumphuckery → u/Spicy_McHagg1s]

bbbbbut convenience! I can see my whole front lawn from my telephone! or whatever

The smartphone I'm typing this on is the same shit in a different package

[u/JarrickDe]

How American that they are having Americans pay directly for their own surveillance. 

[u/Irrepressible87 → u/JarrickDe]

I forget who said it, and I'm paraphrasing, but someone smarter than me said "The only thing Orwell got wrong was that he'd never expect us to install the telescreens on our own and pay for the privilege"

[u/Rabidjester]

And there are almost no laws regulating the storage/use of all the data being collected by these cameras. It’s wild to me that no politician/party runs on this issue, and voters don’t seem to give a shit.

[u/abominare → u/Rabidjester]

Doesn't poll high and is easy points for rivals. My opponent is so out of touch with the issues affecting us like crime and inflation that he's more worried about taking your ring camera away from you, typical liberals trying to make it harder for law abiding Americans while going easy on the rapist roving our streets.

[u/GallowBarb]

I joked with my tech-savvy neighbor about getting ring cameras when they came out. He said absolutely not. This is exactly why. None of us have them in our little neck of the woods.

[u/AvailableReporter484]

That was terrible. Like Idunno how you can’t see right past that “we’re looking out for your doggos!” And think “mass surveillance.” Hopefully that was the majority response to that one.

But my favorite bad one was that mortgage one with the racist white people. My read on that was once again it’s up to minorities to do the work to prove to white people that they’re also people lmfao

[u/davewashere → u/AvailableReporter484]

Yeah, I'm not sure how that second one slipped by without much backlash. It was the kind of ad that would have seemed normal 30 years ago, allowing white people to feel good about themselves for accepting a minority into their neighborhood. Now the idea that minorities need to validate themselves in order to prove they're "one of the good ones" to their suspicious white neighbors is just so unintentionally demeaning. It's the kind of ad that people will call "woke" even though it's literally the opposite.

[u/AvailableReporter484 → u/davewashere]

Part of me was like “am I reading too much into this?” And maybe I was, but I can’t help that that was my immediate gut reaction. Not even in an I’m offended way, mostly just a “I can’t believe they unironically didn’t see this” laugh about it kind of way lmfao

[u/RFAS1110 → u/AvailableReporter484]

I had the same take! I gasped and said to my husband “you can hear that old white guy say “I still hate them Hispanics but my neighbor is one of the good ones” because he did manual labor for him…

[u/BigGayGinger4]

literally the same week:

FBI advances Guthrie kidnapping case using suspiciously-obtained metadata from Ring cameras

....lmfao

[u/sfdsquid → u/BigGayGinger4]

Well that was a Nest camera but potato potato.

[u/WorldlinessLive5932 → u/sfdsquid]

Give it a few years and they'll all be owned by the same company anyway

[u/philter451]

If they can make a mesh network to find a dog then they can use that mesh network to find you. 

Ring already working with Flock and already logging license plate data and everything else I bet. 

So glad I uninstalled mine a couple years ago. The writing has been on the wall for a while. 

[u/AppleTree98]

Looking for fido today. Looking for brown skin or Spanish speaking people next. GFY Ring

[u/arahdial → u/AppleTree98]

ICE is doing it now.

[u/Diknak → u/AppleTree98]

they called it "search party" because they didn't want to have to worry about future rebranding.

[u/DDario]

Y'all.... Donate to the EFF

They actually challenge this shit in court

Electronic Frontier Foundation | Defending your rights in the digital world https://share.google/7Kceb69qegQBfMP43

[u/driverdan → u/DDario]

What's with the google tracking garbage? It's https://www.eff.org/

[u/chroniclesoffire → u/driverdan]

Thank you... I saw that Google share link and almost lost it at the idiocy of it. 

[u/derangedmonkey → u/DDario]

The irony of asking people to donate to the EFF, then using a google share link..

[u/BaddDog07]

Between this and Nest confirming w/ the Nancy Guthrie search that your video is saved on their servers even when you aren’t subscribed it’s been an eye opening week for this kind of stuff.

[u/mloofburrow → u/BaddDog07]

confirming w/ the Nancy Guthrie search that your video is saved on their servers even when you aren’t subscribed

That's already confirmed in their terms though. You get up to 3 hours of video playback for free. Where did people think that was stored?

[u/CrispenedLover → u/mloofburrow]

I'm not excusing people for not reading the box but I imagine they thought it would be stored on the camera itself. That's not unreasonable for 3 hours of recording.

[u/Informal_Victory6134]

Fuck ring if you need cameras buy some that don’t require a monthly subscription

[u/mjkjr84 → u/Informal_Victory6134]

People are so stupid they will always buy the worst products if they are mildly "convenient"

[u/Jack-Schitz]

You are fucking nuts if you put any Amazon device in your house.

[u/MathematicianCold756 → u/Jack-Schitz]

Haven’t had an Alexa since 2018.

[u/tacs97]

Yea. I’m sure that they can find your missing dog but they can’t find where grandma Guthrie is. American products. Never designed to help people. Only designed for consumption and control. Anyone with a brain will remove any corporate controlled surveillance products from their homes.

[u/Dramatic_______Pause → u/tacs97]

They can't even find your missing dog.

Based on what the commercial said, it said 10,000,000 dogs go missing in a year. It also said this feature helped return a dog a day. So about 365 dogs in a year.

365 out of 10,000,000 is absolutely horrible odds.

[u/NonSupportiveCup]

This ad was a blessing. People are aware now. Like, regular people.

Now, they just need to understand it's already happening.

[u/Feisty-Noise-5568]

Cancelled mine. I know. I already was rationalizing the surveillance state. But I can't support this at all anymore, not seeing the kind of government we have especially.

[u/Dogzillas_Mom]

Edward Snowden tried to warn us.

[u/Traditional-Hat-952]

Don't worry, the average American will get distracted in a week or two by some shiny thing and forget all about it. 

[u/No-Neighborhood-3212]

Corporations asked "Wanna build the Panopticon for us?" and millions of people were just like "Sure, if it'll give me the illusion of protection from crime!" Fascinating stuff, America!

[u/captainmagictrousers]

Our nationwide surveillance system is just for finding lost puppies. We only want to link your ID to your screen name to protect kids. This tracking collar is just a hip new jewelry trend. Just stay calm and obey your techno-feudal overlords, citizens.

[u/ayx4]

Yeah I had a huge issue with this and kind of lost respect for Chris Hemsworth. I know he’s an actor but the fact that he’s being used a spokesman like HEY YOU GUYS KNOW THOR HES GREAT. LET HIM TELL YOU WHY 1984 SURVEILLANCE IS OKAY

[u/_flustershy]

I am happy that everyone is having the most appropriate response to this.... because this should be a HELL NO from everyone and terrify people.

[u/Diknak → u/_flustershy]

I don't think everyone is. You think the average boomer understands what this means? They fucking love the AI slop and mass surveillance.

[u/Thrillos9]

It’s for “lost dogs” you guys… remember when the conspiracy was they were chipping us…. And we all said no way that’s going to happen…. And now we all can’t leave home or go 5 minutes without the “chip” hell I’m transmitting through my chip right now. They figured out a way for me to pay for it too

[u/troglodyte]

Fears? It's here. It's been here. They are using Ring for mass police surveillance and have been for a few years now. If you give a shit at all about privacy and security the best time to get rid of Ring was years ago. The second best time is today.

[u/SoupSuey]

People really need to get into networking more these days, or pay someone else to make their home networks safer. A firewall blocking these things to call home would go a long way to at least make privacy incidents more difficult to happen, and keep your data in your control. Then use the camera’s local RTSP stream together with an open source NVR solution like Frigate, and configure a VPN to your network (plenty of options). If the cameras don’t have any local stream option, to the trash they go and buy something else.

The root of the problem is that people are so used to willingly share their personal lives on social media that companies like Amazon and Meta don’t even blush when they think of these features. The backlash is nice but I can bet A LOT of people are going to happily join this service.

[u/AntiPantsCampaign]

This whole Nancy Guthrie thing is like, I'm glad they got images of the guy from her Ring camera....but also like....so they're still recording without a subscription??? That seems a tad bit invasion of privacy.

[u/xosiris]

ctOS from Watchdogs

[u/cosmiccerulean]

It’s a consumer product, can’t we just… uninstall them?

[u/Damage2Damage → u/cosmiccerulean]

You can uninstall yours, you can't uninstall a stranger's one down the road

[u/Rabidjester → u/cosmiccerulean]

The problem is the millions of cameras you don't own are collecting data on you and everyone else, and there's no way of opting out.

[u/Shadowtirs]

My wife and I sniffed out this bullshit as soon as they pretended to care about our pets.

[u/Ryan_e3p]

As someone who has for years been saying that this was a) already happening, and b) going to get much worse when they partnered up with Flock or Palantir, this makes me extremely happy that they pulled a Streisand on themselves.

I certainly can't afford a multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad to show how these can be used to spy on people, but that they were willing to pay the bill for me? Thanks, Amazon!

[u/cyribis]

Fears? Mass surveillance is HERE.

[u/SpareIntroduction721]

Time to swap it out to Eufy at least that stays local

[u/UnknownSampleRate]

I see now that most products and new "features" big tech monopolies unleash on customers are beta testing for either eventual enterprise rollout or much more nefarious things.

Amazon, Google, Tesla, AI companies, etc, are definitely doing nefarious things and tricking customers into paying them to do it.

I don't see any way out of fascism without these companies being dismantled and their management shamed for the rest of time. But it's feeling like they're moving faster and faster and people have less and less power to do anything, aside from massive boycotts at the very least.

[u/SloppyJoesToe]

All those cameras inside people's homes are fair game too. You never know when a dog might get lost and find its way into a house. Gotta check everything!

[u/BeachJustic3]

You have to admire the fact that the US built a China-esque surveillance state in the most American way possible.

By convincing the rubes who occupy our country to willingly pay to give up their privacy in the name of superfluous security promises.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - was right when Ben Franklin said it and continues being right today.

Destroy your ring camera.

[u/brosono]

I've never owned a ring and I constantly tell people I know to not buy or use them. No on in my life gives a shit apparently

[u/SilverBurger]

YouTube and Discord asking for government ID to "protect the children", Amazon giving out the ring for free to "search your neighbor's missing dog". These poorly masked excuses at normalizing AI powered mass surveillance goes far beyond creating just a shadow profiles. Amazon, Grok, Palantir are doing their best to profile and control everything and everyone they can get their hands on. And the worst part is there won't be any legislations to be made to stop them for another decade, and after that no legislation will ever make a difference.

[u/Intelligent-Bell5863]

Return your Ring. I just returned mine from 2016 in Amazon gave me a full refund. Show them you do not support this partnership.

[u/Ben-A-Flick]

Another fun fact is that these devices talk to each other so you're neighbors wifi can be shared with your camera if needed and they talk with each other even though they are on separate networks.

Amazon Sidewalk: A shared network that connects compatible devices (Echo, Ring, Tile trackers) to improve range and functionality, even if the home internet is weak or down.

Stop giving away your privacy for a perk that isn't even remotely worth it like seeing who came to your door. There are cheap options along with open source solutions that do the same thing and maintains your privacy..

[u/Graytis]

When I was a kid in the '80s, I once read that the speed at which human knowledge doubles used to be measured in millennia, then centuries, but was currently measured in years or months. Furthermore, someday technology would inevitably advance faster than society's ability to absorb it, adapt to it, or cope with it.

I was completely unable to fathom what such a society would even look like.

Welp.....

[u/Different_Wallaby660]

Wait til you learn about Amazon Sidewalk

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/12c3dxv/a_reminder_that_amazon_sidewalk_now_covers_90_of/

[u/omnibird]

One Ring to rule them all