Well, in some way, I’ve got to give kudos-props to whoever talked the US populace into creating their own surveillance state in the name of safety (cough, cough… women). With the prevalence of Ring cameras (yes I have some), Nest, and other home camera options that are available, it’s almost impossible to go anywhere without being caught on someone’s camera. That doesn’t include the Flock cameras photographing our cars as a kind of Minority Report without a warrant.
What we now have is something that would make a British police officer weep with envy and would make the Founding Fathers weep in sorrow.
Companies being what they are, Ring now has a search function that they are touting as a way to find lost pets (camel’s nose under the tent here). And we have apps and devices that want to capture our biometrics under the guise of convenience.
The guy over at Legally Armed America puts all of the pieces together. The video is just over 22 minutes and is worth the time to watch. The link is here, just in case it doesn’t embed properly (ht: B).
When surveillance meets government meets AI meets biometrics, then all of us are watched all of the time. And it doesn’t matter if we’re ‘doing anything’. It’s prescient sci-fi. And whoever controls the algorithm will be able to punish at will. What is ‘acceptable’ will be subject to change without notice or warning.
The guys at 404 Media have some more (starting about minute 27). They also go into the Ring/Flock partnership. Interesting stuff.
Something to think about.
ETA: I went into ring.com to check my settings (you can’t do this on the app for some reason). As a note, if you click on something like Amazon Sidewalks or Neighborhood or whatever, it will automatically slide it to ‘enabled’ even if it was disabled before. So be careful.
ETA again: Apparently Amazon is ending their relationship with Flock. Ring’s new Search Party apparently put the squick on a lot of people (ht: B).
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