Pet Detective

One of the better Super Bowl ads was for Amazon Ring’s Search Party feature that gives neighbors a way to combine their security cam feeds to quickly locate missing pets. Amazon’s CEO says the feature helped bring home 99 dogs in 90 days. But like many security stories, there is another side to this one. “Chris Gilliard, a privacy expert and author of the upcoming book Luxury Surveillance, told 404 Media these features and its Super Bowl ad are ‘a clumsy attempt by Ring to put a cuddly face on a rather dystopian reality: widespread networked surveillance by a company that has cozy relationships with law enforcement and other equally invasive surveillance companies.'” With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet.

+ Most of us want more security and technology enables us to get it. But most of us don’t want that same technology used for every purpose. Flock cameras to make school parking lots more secure? Sounds great. But what about this? Local police aid ICE by tapping school cameras amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. “The data raises questions about the degree to which campus surveillance technology intended for student safety is being repurposed to support immigration enforcement.”