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Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

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Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#231

Post by dyauspitr »

5upplied_demand wrote: post #224
toephu2 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no expectation of privacy in the public setting though. Anyone can record you in public without your permission. > No amount of surveillance will 100% prevent any individual from being a victim of a crime. No, but if it reduces crime by 99% would you be in favor of it? (See South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore.. examples of democratic countries with CCTVs all over the public space.. and before you say well those a…

> This is because they have strict laws against crime and these laws are actually enforced Just before this, you said it was because of CCTV. Is it the CCTV or the strict laws and enforcement? India and South Africa are democratic countries with large CCTV programs and high crime rates.

India has a very low crime rate. The homicide rate is 2 in 100,000. Murder/homicide is basically unheard of in major cities. For instance Mumbai has a homicide rate of 0.7 in 100,000 making it one of the safest cities in the world.

https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/crime-in-india-s-larg...

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics...

What are your sources?

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#232

Post by selcuka »

simmerup wrote: post #146
reaperducer wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lmao did they really say it's null-key encrypted? You know movies aren't real life, don't you?

Wait until he sees the main character is a super hero

Batman is technically not a super (as in superhuman) hero, though. He's just rich and determined.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#233

Post by somat »

thadt wrote: post #116
mlsu wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a startling number of conversations exactly like this: "Oh, you read as well? What do your read?" "[this book], [that book]" "Those are all non-fiction, any fiction?" "I don't read fiction. If I'm not going to learn anything, it's a waste of time." "..."

Oh man, have I gotten to read a lot of history recently. And also fiction. Frequently at the same time.

I like the quote that claims that as a science history is probably closer to animal husbandry than anything else.

Don't get me wrong I like history and think it a critical thing to study. but it is very telling to try ones hand at meta-history, the history of history, look to how the narrative of a historical subject changes through time and space.

An easy one is world war 2 documentaries. The difference in tone and focus of those done right after the cessation of hostilities compared to those done later is fascinating.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#234

Post by batiudrami »

VanTheBrand wrote: post #145
eddyg wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoting from the press release: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/01/apple-introduces-new-... "Designed exclusively for tracking objects, and not people or pets " (emphasis mine)

That’s just so you don’t sue the over your lost dog

Or your dog eating the AirTag with the button battery inside it

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#235

Post by alfalfasprout »

slg wrote: post #29
mjr00 wrote: post #20

The Dark Knight was released in 2008. In that movie, Batman hijacks citizens' cellphones to track down the Joker, and it's presented as a major moral and ethical dilemma as part of the movie's overall themes. The only way Batman remains a "good guy" in the eyes of the audience is by destroying the entire thing once he's done. Crazy to think that less than two decades later, an even more powerful surveillance technolo…

It's hard to not become disillusioned with our industry when most of it is just the manifesting of that Torment Nexus tweet. It's like no one in the tech world actually understands any piece of fiction that they have ever consumed.

You'll see on HN itself how many people want to work on this surveillance. How many people want all white collar work eliminated by AI. How many people want a quick buck at anyone's expense, the morality be damned.

Money and only money talks nowadays. It's sad.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#236

Post by apparent »

ibejoeb wrote: post #166
apparent wrote: post #151

The situation with the Nancy Guthrie disappearance and Nest camera footage is related, and interesting. It seems that she had a Nest doorbell camera, but didn't pay for the subscription plan ($100/yr?). As a result, the camera records short snippets but doesn't save them to the cloud in a user-accessible way. After a week, Google finally hunted down/coughed up the footage. I imagine there were some people within Goog…

That is one of the weirder aspects of this run of the simulation. Ring: just want you to know that we record everything whether you pay us or not and we know where you dog is. Savannah: Where's Ma? Ring:

FWIW, Nancy's camera was a Nest, not Ring.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#237

Post by ibejoeb »

apparent wrote: post #236
ibejoeb wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is one of the weirder aspects of this run of the simulation. Ring: just want you to know that we record everything whether you pay us or not and we know where you dog is. Savannah: Where's Ma? Ring:

FWIW, Nancy's camera was a Nest, not Ring.

My mistake. Despite that, I don't have much confidence that nest isn't also uploading everything at all times.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#238

Post by ajam1507 »

dheera wrote: post #202
blibble wrote: post #17

that advert is just so horribly manipulative it's borderline evil how can normal people go to work and produce this output? (I suppose everyone that is prepared to work at Amazon corporate is... a certain type of person)

Because if you don't do what you are told at work, you may be forced to uproot your family, spouse, kids, and leave the country. You may be forced to abandon your pets and never see them again, forced to send your kids to suddenly school in a different, foreign-to-them language. You may be forced to pay tens of thousands in moving expenses. You may be forced to pay mortgages for a house you are not allowed to live in…

Grow a spine, you don't get a pass to do unethical things because your job depends on it.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#239

Post by ThunderSizzle »

cheschire wrote: post #195
tantalor wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That ad was great. I'm not sure how it sells Alexa products, but it was hilarious.

Well you’re talking about it and not Siri

Jokes on them. I won't buy either. I'll stick with my home assistant a d locally owned devices.

Lost internet today for hours and for once, my local devices had no issues. It depresses me I was even interested in app-based devices.

Re: Amazon Ring's lost dog ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance

#240

Post by slg »

mrob wrote: post #229
slg wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Lacking evidence to the contrary we have to assume it works like every other movie. Failing to provide this evidence when it would have been easy to do so is bad film-making. Which brings us full circle back to my first reply to you, there is no evidence in the movie either way on the justification for their actions. You're reading that we must trust the fascists in the film due to film conventions is just as relian…

The evidence is shown on screen. We see the asteroid fired at Earth. We see Buenos Aires destroyed. We see the bugs killing the humans. If you call this unreliable narration it becomes impossible to discuss any fiction at all, because once you reject basic narrative conventions you can make up any nonsense you like and nobody can argue against it. Calling the characters "fascists" because they use fascist aesthetics…

>We see the asteroid fired at Earth.

No, we don't. The bugs have no technology. How could they send an asteroid from light-years away with enough speed and accuracy to hit Earth on any reasonable timeframe? It's not even a good lie. It's a story that strains credulity the second you actually think about its logistics. The only reason you believe it is that characters in the movie say it.

>We see Buenos Aires destroyed.

Sure, but asteroids also have natural origins. The government coopts the disaster for their own ends in an obvious mirroring of the Reichstag fire. The true cause of the destruction is irrelevant, the only thing that matters is what the crisis can be used to justify.

>We see the bugs killing the humans.

Sure, after the humans invade the bugs home. If you go on a hike, find a beehive, and then start poking it with a stick, no rational person would blame the bees for stinging you.

>Calling the characters "fascists" because they use fascist aesthetics is basically acting like an LLM. It's only engaging with the surface detail without having a solid world-model to back up your thoughts.

The government portrayed in the movie is fascistic because it shows a society that is entirely governed by military might and structure. The classroom scenes at the beginning of the movie discuss the failure of democracy and how that led to veterans taking control through force. We are also repeatedly told that basic rights of citizenship are only awarded to veterans. When they're at boot camp and all going around explaining their reasons for joining the military, one person says she wants to start a family and military service is the best path to getting a license for it. This is a highly structured and totalitarian society ruled by a military class. How would you describe that if it isn't "fascism"?

Once again, you seem to be guilty of the same thing you're accusing me of doing. The only evidence that this isn't a fascist society is the surface-level details of things like a bunch of happy high school students. Any discussion of the actual society they live in paints a clear picture of fascism.

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