Amazon Ring Doorbell Seems Sketchy
Well folks, looks like Amazon is at it again with its technological advancements, but this time, it’s advanced in its snooping. That’s right. Amazon has been caught snooping on people through the use of its ring doorbells. Apparently what happened is that for a count of 12 times, Amazon gave the authorities footage captured by said ring doorbell for them to use in their investigations. But here’s the kicker: They didn’t ask the owner’s permission. Of course not, why would they? They’ll just say it was for their own benefit and wellbeing. I guess to some extent that may be true but doesn’t excuse the fact that no one even asked permission. Now since people found out this glob of useful information, they’ve been deservedly questioning the actions of this mega corporation. What penance will Justice dish out on this ugly day? Nothing?
This poses not only a great security risk to owners of the ring doorbell, but also a privacy risk as well. I mean, imagine all the creepy things that you do in the comfort of your home? You might as well be writing your will right now as you will most assuredly die by embarrassment. Okay, so to get things straight, Amazon does not do this all the tie. What usually happens is that Amazon or Ring asks permission to use your footage first before anything else, but in the case where footage that is captured shows suspicious activity, perhaps intent of bodily harm on their cameras, they have the power to then take that footage and send it to the police. While this can be a great advantage in getting people help faster and more efficiently, there’s no way of telling whether some people who review this footage can or won’t be able to use it for personal use.
It’s even stated that before Amazon purchased the Ring Company, they had sent an enormous amount of footage over to Ukraine so that Data Operators could progress their automatic object sensors, as a lot of times, the camera can percept a dog and a person, and this would clearly be inaccurate information. So these data operators would have to go through the videos themselves and optimize where possible to make their camera image recognition as powerful and as useful as possible. It makes sense from a certain view, but as a paying customer, I can’t help but feel as if purchasing this item would come with a little bit of a cost concerning your confidentiality. Be careful what you guys buy. Choose wisely.
