there is literally no fucking way that you can ever expect me to consider amazon--which is probably one of the most powerful corporations in the world at this point--partnering with any police...
Ring declined to reveal how many police departments it is currently serving, but according to one police memo dated April 22, 2019, “over 225 law enforcement agencies” are engaged in partnerships with Ring, which was snatched up by Amazon in April last year.
there is literally no fucking way that you can ever expect me to consider amazon--which is probably one of the most powerful corporations in the world at this point--partnering with any police departments (much less 225!) over ring, of all the services they provide, to be a good thing or something which will benefit the society we live in. like, if we were ever going to enter into a unambiguous corporate surveillance state of one kind or another, this would probably be how that starts. corporations and governments intermingling over voluntarily bought products which can serve as a backdoor to surveillance when necessary, more or less unbeknownst to the typical consumer.
While I can certainly agree with your overall point(about the surveillance state), as a 911 dispatcher, I can absolutely attest to how useful Ring cameras have been in my city in generating...
While I can certainly agree with your overall point(about the surveillance state), as a 911 dispatcher, I can absolutely attest to how useful Ring cameras have been in my city in generating suspect descriptions on home break ins, car burglaries, assaults etc.
So many people have them now that when my officers respond to a call, it's one of the aspects of the investigation, checking with the neighboring houses to see if anyone has cameras and if they have any footage of the crime and it has lead to arrests.
I sincerely wish that the police reputation was good enough that people would trust the PD to use camera footage responsibly but I acknowledge we're long past that point.
my bigger concern is far and away amazon specifically than it is law enforcement or the underlying technology; for amazon--which probably has the institutional power of a small state at this point...
my bigger concern is far and away amazon specifically than it is law enforcement or the underlying technology; for amazon--which probably has the institutional power of a small state at this point given its size and reach--to be (1) trying to get chummy with law enforcement, and (2) to be doing that over this particular technology, which has potential to be used in some creepy and privacy-invading ways that go beyond just regular data-hoarding, trips about 10 red flags. it'd be one--still bad, but significantly less dystopian-looking--thing if it were like, a smaller corporation doing it with one or two police departments.
It's not about police reputation, it's about human nature. If the data exists it will be abused.
I sincerely wish that the police reputation was good enough that people would trust the PD to use camera footage responsibly but I acknowledge we're long past that point.
It's not about police reputation, it's about human nature. If the data exists it will be abused.
Gizmodo posted another article today about Ring, talking about them going through their police partnerships to try to get access to the computer-aided dispatch systems so that they can send out...
Gizmodo posted another article today about Ring, talking about them going through their police partnerships to try to get access to the computer-aided dispatch systems so that they can send out crime alerts: Cops Are Giving Amazon's Ring Your Real-Time 911 Caller Data
there is literally no fucking way that you can ever expect me to consider amazon--which is probably one of the most powerful corporations in the world at this point--partnering with any police departments (much less 225!) over ring, of all the services they provide, to be a good thing or something which will benefit the society we live in. like, if we were ever going to enter into a unambiguous corporate surveillance state of one kind or another, this would probably be how that starts. corporations and governments intermingling over voluntarily bought products which can serve as a backdoor to surveillance when necessary, more or less unbeknownst to the typical consumer.
While I can certainly agree with your overall point(about the surveillance state), as a 911 dispatcher, I can absolutely attest to how useful Ring cameras have been in my city in generating suspect descriptions on home break ins, car burglaries, assaults etc.
So many people have them now that when my officers respond to a call, it's one of the aspects of the investigation, checking with the neighboring houses to see if anyone has cameras and if they have any footage of the crime and it has lead to arrests.
I sincerely wish that the police reputation was good enough that people would trust the PD to use camera footage responsibly but I acknowledge we're long past that point.
my bigger concern is far and away amazon specifically than it is law enforcement or the underlying technology; for amazon--which probably has the institutional power of a small state at this point given its size and reach--to be (1) trying to get chummy with law enforcement, and (2) to be doing that over this particular technology, which has potential to be used in some creepy and privacy-invading ways that go beyond just regular data-hoarding, trips about 10 red flags. it'd be one--still bad, but significantly less dystopian-looking--thing if it were like, a smaller corporation doing it with one or two police departments.
It's not about police reputation, it's about human nature. If the data exists it will be abused.
Gizmodo posted another article today about Ring, talking about them going through their police partnerships to try to get access to the computer-aided dispatch systems so that they can send out crime alerts: Cops Are Giving Amazon's Ring Your Real-Time 911 Caller Data