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Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

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Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#31
post #25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rampant crime is largely made up.

Who’s making up the homicide and other violent crime statistics and for what purpose?

How do the stats look compared to 5, 10, 20, 40 years ago?

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#32
I know it seems hard, but just stop using Google, Amazon, Meta products. Tell everyone you know to stop using their products. They have all been acquiring and amassing surveillance for years through their products and now they're just double dipping with AI training to sell you more of it. The more you can get people to realize and disconnect the better.

I wish more people would use AI to build alternatives with a clear, binding mission not to exploit the data, not to sell or be funded by investors who expect it to, etc. We have the power to build more than ever. We should use it.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No marketing team would willingly do this and it's insane to think otherwise.

And yet this went up. I understand it’s easy to just say “marketing teams don’t understand anything,“ but I have worked with many and they are incredibly sensitive to negative feelings/reactions. They get it wrong but they tend to air on the side of caution which means the vast majority of the time they avoid situations like this incredibly intentionally.

Marketing teams are constantly out of touch with the message they want to convey vs the message that gets conveyed. The creative team is usually not even talking to the other teams that would drive decisions like this - they almost exclusively are an isolated team (purposefully, like how engineers are often isolated from customers) that talks to a separate marketing team that then manages things like legal/compliance, which then bubbles up to other orgs etc.

The people creating ads are just organizationally isolated in most cases.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#34

> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surp…

No marketing team would willingly do this and it's insane to think otherwise.

Of course, they would. If the administration asked Bezos, and he gets a benefit out of it. He will task his marketing team to come up with something which tries to frame it in a positive light. Knowing that even if a few people make a stink this will blow over eventually and when it rolls out, he can always say it is just about puppies and neighborhood security. Nobody cares.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#35

> But the graphic Amazon used seems to have unwittingly depicted how invasive this technology can be This is a calculated move to normalize such technology. Yes, it will cause controversy in the short term, and these companies knew this was a possibility—but as a result the image in people's minds won't be the gestapo rounding up grannies; it'll kids finding puppies. To call this "unwitting" is simply naive (not surp…

No marketing team would willingly do this and it's insane to think otherwise.

Cambridge Analytica was an experiment run by a marketing team. I wouldn't say marketing will always side on ethics.

Propaganda is, and always has been, a subset of marketing aimed at shifting public perception. It would be wild to assume it never happens.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#36
post #25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rampant crime is largely made up.

Who’s making up the homicide and other violent crime statistics and for what purpose?

Which statistics are you looking at? Crime has been dropping since the 90s, with the exception of short term regressions.

https://jasher.substack.com/p/crime-is-likely-down-an-enormo...

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#37

This probably even has ramifications beyond US residents. I'm confident Google etc will be compelled (if they haven't already been) to share their dossiers with the US and allies so that there is a file on each individual's psychology, weaknesses, and a how-to manual for gaslighting that person with the goal to silence them or coerce them into acting a certain way. And by then, the Stasi would look like cute amateurs…

I've noticed a big split in viewpoint between people who don't live in the US.

Its like those who live in the states have a incentive to act like everything going on is ok, while those outside are increasingly having statements like yours. "How do you not see this power 13 years past Snowden"

I've not given up trying to point out how dangerous the US govs powers are in the hands of an ever less capable and more fascist government, ie posting here on HN, but the odds to convince people are low.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#38
Glenn Greenwald is back on substack. Yay! For the past few years, he’s mostly done videos on rumble, and he’s fun to watch, but personally I prefer his writing. In case you’ve been under a rock for 10 years, Greenwald was the guy who published Snowden’s revelations. His focus has always been on censorship, surveillance, and hypocrisy in government.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#39

I know it seems hard, but just stop using Google, Amazon, Meta products. Tell everyone you know to stop using their products. They have all been acquiring and amassing surveillance for years through their products and now they're just double dipping with AI training to sell you more of it. The more you can get people to realize and disconnect the better. I wish more people would use AI to build alternatives with a cl…

That is going to work as the same as telling people to stop buying gas from Standard Oil or stop using Bell Telephone. Without government intervention you cannot break up their control.

Re: Amazon's Ring and Google's Nest reveal the severity of U.S. surveillance state

#40
post #24
post #21

It’s pretty amazing when you get the worst of both worlds—total surveillance, yet still rampant crime.

The rampant crime is largely made up.

Really? Rampant white collar crime is made up?
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