When Ring unveiled its new products, the company highlighted an upcoming feature called Search Party.
Search Party was a way for people to find lost pets, as neighborhood Ring cams would use AI to scrub home security footage to see if it could find a match for the missing animal.
It’s hard to argue against. Who doesn’t want to help reunite families with a lost pet?
However, I wondered how long it would be before the technology was applied to other uses. Unfortunately, the answer is not long.
The Verge has a wonderful story by Elissa Welle outlining how Amazon is partnering with Flock to enable law enforcement to request footage from your Ring cam in the Neighbors app.
Amazon had previously worked with other government agencies, but now local law enforcement can request your footage.
Everyone claims there are plenty of opt-outs, but I don’t like where this is headed, and neither should you.
Optional, but for how long?
Currently, if law enforcement believes there’s a video that might assist with an investigation, they can make a request to you through the Neighborhood app.
You’re free to decline, and you don’t even have to receive the notifications — you can turn off requests entirely.
That seems reassuring on paper, but I question how long it will be until loopholes are found.
It’s also easy enough to justify morally. The footage is being used to solve a crime, so what if a little privacy is infringed? It’s a slippery slope, and I fear it’s not that far off.
Footage requests haven’t been limited to open investigations.
The same article from The Verge highlights reports that Ring has collaborated with law enforcement for years, providing data without a warrant — especially in emergency cases; although, it remains unclear what constitutes an emergency.
It’s open to interpretation, and it’s possible we wouldn’t even know if our data and footage were being used. It’s the inherent danger posed by cameras that are constantly on and watching, and I don’t think there’s a way around it.
Neighborhoods in Baltimore were set up with free cams
Ring cams have been used to enhance wider neighborhood security before. Last year, community leaders in Baltimore were awarded a $100,000 state grant to provide free Ring cameras to residents.
It’s a noble concept. Community members coming together to figure out ways to make their homes safer.
Users could choose whether the footage from their cameras was shared, and community leaders mentioned that some people were already being caught on video engaging in activities they shouldn’t be.
That’s my problem with these programs, and with Amazon offering to share Ring camera footage with law enforcement.
The initial use case sounds good. We’re helping reunite families with their pets or keeping communities safe.
The first implementations will do some good and be legitimately helpful. It’s what comes after that I worry about — especially if you’re essentially creating a mesh CCTV network.
I’m sure other uses are on the horizon
Other ways to use data from cameras
When I first heard Ring present the idea of Search Party to help find lost pets, my mind immediately jumped to commercial uses.
Every piece of technology you own is gathering data about you, and a good chunk of that winds up as an advertisement that comes back to you eventually.
I don’t know how many times I’ve been in the car with my wife and called out something random on the side of the road, only to see an ad for that same product on Instagram an hour later.
I can’t imagine it will be long before these cameras passively collect data about our schedules and shopping habits.
It’s already hard enough to protect our data online, and all the opt-outs in the world aren’t enough to keep companies from selling our information. Now we have to worry about the very objects we install to keep our homes and families safe.
It’s a slippery slope with no bottom
I know I’m making a few leaps, and there’s a long way to go between Ring sharing video footage with law enforcement and living in a Minority Report reality.
However, we won’t know what’s happening with our footage, and that’s scary.
I’m all for helping people find their lost pets, and I can’t argue with the merits of keeping our communities safe.
Still, giving up the last remaining shreds of privacy we still hold is a significant consideration — I just want to give it some thought.
