Ring's CEO told staff the feature is “first for finding dogs,” indicating a plan to expand.

Ring’s controversial, AI-powered “Search Party” feature isn’t intended to always be limited only to dogs, the company’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, told Ring employees in an internal email obtained by 404 Media.

In October, Ring launched Search Party, an on-by-default feature that links together Ring cameras in a neighborhood and uses AI to search for specific lost dogs, essentially creating a networked, automated surveillance system. The feature got some attention at the time, but faced extreme backlash after Ring and Siminoff promoted Search Party during a Super Bowl ad. 404 Media obtained an email that Siminoff sent to all Ring employees in early October, soon after the feature’s launch, which said the feature was introduced “first for finding dogs,” but that it or features like it would be expanded to “zero out crime in neighborhoods.”

“This is by far the most innovation that we have launched in the history of Ring. And it is not only the quantity, but quality,” Siminoff wrote. “I believe that the foundation we created with Search Party, first for finding dogs, will end up becoming one of the most important pieces of tech and innovation to truly unlock the impact of our mission. You can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods. So many things to do to get there but for the first time ever we have the chance to fully complete what we started.”

Archive: http://archive.today/xKxOd

  • mech@feddit.orgEnglish
    1·
    9 minutes ago

    Off the record, Siminoff could be heard saying “Dogs today, blacks tomorrow and people later.”[1]

    1. Citation needed ↩︎

  • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    3·
    1 hour ago

    What if your kid runs off? Your elderly mother wondered off? A break in was reported down the road? What if all non whites are labeled terrorist? We need to watch you 24/7. Obey

  • hector@lemmy.todayEnglish
    29·
    3 hours ago

    No kidding? Next thing you will be telling us that chatcontrol and age checks on the internet will be used for more than just protecting kids from pedophiles and be extended to crushing dissent and opposition and democracy itself, and building social scores on us with all information including these cameras that will be used secretly against us in a way we cannot know or challenge to determine our jobs, background checks, police scrutiny, how courts and government treats you, how business treats you, the prices you are offered online and in digital price tag stores (coming soon,) and even what search results you are shown. All calculated by the antichrist’s company, for said pedophile or pedophile adjacent politicians deciding which of us are undesirable, and given a way to slip names of people into the bad score list themselves, always a selling perk under the table to leaders.

    It’s always just a trojan horse to get in the walls. It will never end with finding pets, with stopping child abuse, what have you. They find the instance that no one can disagree with then accuse people of helping child abusers, maybe you are a child abuser yourself! It’s not subtle. All done by people that are mostly on the epstein’s redacted and unreleased pages for actually fucking children.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    3 hours ago

    Why anyone would have non-locally hosted video surveillance in and around their home is beyond me.

    You’re basically begging corporations/governments to spy on you.

  • jabberwock@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    21·
    1 hour ago

    FWIW, Ring announced they were canceling their partnership with Flock a few days ago following the Superbowl ad where they were universally dragged. https://blog.ring.com/about-ring/ring-and-flock-cancel-partnership/

    Do I think Ring is still running some sort of analytics on video feeds? Probably. Should you put anything from Amazon directly in the trash? Absolutely.

    Silver lining I guess is that public pressure still works at least a little when companies try to go straight dystopian.

    • SparroHawc@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      26 minutes ago

      The partnership will happen later on when the noise has died down, and it won’t be publicized.

  • fubarx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 hours ago

    Anyone remember “Police Blotter” reports in local papers? Some were funny.

    Someone called in with concerns about a neighborhood cat that is “continuously at large.”

    But they mostly gave people a very dark view of the world outside. This led to metal bars on doors and windows, sale of pricey security systems, and folks walking around scared of their shadow. That all moved over to apps like NextDoor, Citizen, and Ring’s Neighbors.

    Fear is a primal driver. People on those apps are constantly reporting “odd looking people” in their neighborhood. Not surprisingly, the pet “Search Party” feature goes through Neighbors. Those same users are primed to see bad people everywhere. They will happily accept any feature that promises “zero crime neighborhoods.”

    ANY feature.