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Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

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Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#11

Post by themafia »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #5
touwer wrote: post #4

Big tech is nothing different from the German industrialists one hundred years ago

If history has thought us anything, it has to be that capitalists have absolutely no spine and only think about profits, no matter what.

We used to know this inherently and we spent half a century passing really well thought out and actionable laws designed to thwart the darker side of capitalism while still allowing it's benefits to accrue to the masses.

Since then we've forgotten how to enforce anti monopoly and media ownership rules. Similarly we've somehow completely turned campaign financing into an open competition for bribes.

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#12

Post by everdrive »

George Orwell really never could have imagined that people would flock to purchase or otherwise use the methods of their own surveillance. (smart phones, social media, smart cameras, modern cars, etc) I think it paints government surveillance policies in something of a different light. There is definitely a constituency which believes that the evil central government is pushing for surveillance in a purely unilateral way.

I'm not really pro-government, but modern surveillance capitalism really pushes against this view. Put to their own devices, the public will generally (and apparently) flock towards mass surveillance all on their own, and I think one possible implication is that the government surveillance policies are more popular then some folks in HN circles would suspect.

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#13

Post by gitfan86 »

themafia wrote: post #9
gitfan86 wrote: post #7

To all the people talking about government surveillance do you not realize the government already can track you by your cell phone?

I have deniability with the phone. I can also just leave it at home if I want or turn it off entirely. That access should also be illegal without a warrant; however, this is far worse than cellular "metadata" tracking.

I don't understand why you assume that the government is following all the laws when it comes to cell phones and cloud data but won't when it comes to ring data?

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#14

Post by Aachen »

These are mappable in OpenStreetMap with the tags surveillance:type=camera + camera:mount=doorbell

Data query around the Netherlands shows about a hundred are mapped so far as specifically doorbell cameras: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2dQw (the tag does not yet seem established in the USA). There are also many thousands of cameras mapped that are either not doorbell-mounted, or simply not tagged to such detail. This is a convenient map to see all of them: https://sunders.intri.cat/

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#15

Post by potato3732842 »

mothballed wrote: post #6
touwer wrote: post #4

Big tech is nothing different from the German industrialists one hundred years ago

Big tech have always been dogs willing to play fetch for any master. The free market didn't offer big tech these quantity of rewards for brutalizing people 'guilty' of administrative infractions, our 'democratically' elected government did.

>elected government

Elected in part by the useful idiots on HN and many other places. They were so ignorant of how government actually works they were happy to give it this power. They foresaw the jackboot being used to stomp petty criminals and fellow middle class types who don't "pay their fair share". But they had never cracked open a history book because if they had they would know that sort of stuff is never a top priority.

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#17

Post by potato3732842 »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #5
touwer wrote: post #4

Big tech is nothing different from the German industrialists one hundred years ago

If history has thought us anything, it has to be that capitalists have absolutely no spine and only think about profits, no matter what.

Ah, yes, because those communists and feudal lords, theocratic regimes, monarchs and all manner of other non-capitalist societies have such a stellar track record of treating people well.

This isn't a capitalist or any other "ist" problem. It is a problem with society and social norms.

The cameras are there because people want them to be. The cameras get used because it is not politically toxic to do so. The use continues because the people objecting to the current abuse don't object on a principal level, they love the jackboot. They'd just rather see it used to levy ruinous fines upon middle class scofflaws (got I hate that word and the people who use it unironically) than whisk brown people off the street. Sure, different people would screech if the powers that be pivoted in that direction but at no point does the screeching add up to change because only the people who hate a specific abuse screech at any one time.

Re: Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock

#19

Post by cindyllm »

potato3732842 wrote: post #15
mothballed wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big tech have always been dogs willing to play fetch for any master. The free market didn't offer big tech these quantity of rewards for brutalizing people 'guilty' of administrative infractions, our 'democratically' elected government did.

>elected government Elected in part by the useful idiots on HN and many other places. They were so ignorant of how government actually works they were happy to give it this power. They foresaw the jackboot being used to stomp petty criminals and fellow middle class types who don't "pay their fair share". But they had never cracked open a history book because if they had they would know that sort of stuff is never a t…

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