When Amazon announced the wider rollout of a tracking feature to help Ring smart doorbells find lost dogs, it was immediately seen as a precursor to using the feature to identify people.
That the company was indeed planning to do so has now been confirmed by a leaked email that Ring admitted to be genuine…
“Dystopian” Ring Search Party feature
Things kicked off when the wider rollout of the lost dog feature was announced last week.
Amazon apparently thought the world would respond with a collective “awww” when it announced the expansion of its Ring Search Party feature to help find lost dogs, promoted via a 30-second Super Bowl ad (below). Instead, it is widely regarded as a dystopian move in the current climate.
Since the company recently introduced facial recognition for the Ring video doorbell, people have drawn an obvious and extremely short line between tracking dogs and tracking people.
Public backlash against the feature also led the company to abandon plans to partner with police through Flock Safety.
People tracking plans confirmed in leaked email
While extrapolation from dogs to humans was speculation at the time, 404 Media obtained an internal email from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff that proves this is a solid plan (our emphasis in bold).
“I believe so foundation we created with Search Party, first for search dogs will ultimately become one of the most important technologies and innovations that will truly unlock the impact of our mission. Now you can see the future where we are able zero crime in neighborhoods. We have so many things to do to get there, but for the first time ever we have a chance to finish what we started.”
The company confirmed The Verge that the email was genuine.
The New York Times reports that Siminoff went on an apology tour to try to deal with the lack of PR.
Image: Amazon
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