Amazon wants to deliver crime news and fear to Ring doorbell owners

Ring recalls 350,000 smart doorbells after some of them caught fire
November 11, 2020
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/10/tech/ring-doorbell-recall-fire/index.html

 

Ring gave cops free cameras to build and promote surveillance network
LAPD officers "spread the word" for the startup, helping it gain market share.
June 18, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-as-part-of-an-influencer-marketing-campaign/

 

That link does not open for me.

Did the cops have a warrant?

 

Thanks for that.

From that article:

"IF" that is true, and someone truly was in imminent danger, then I am okay with this. HOWEVER, I would prefer a sworn officer of the law be the one making that determination rather than "Ring" (suggesting some arbitrary employee) made that decision.

Beyond that, I don't see where any Ring user should be upset or surprised. If it says "Amazon", "Facebook", "Google", or "Apple" on the device, users should expect that information is being shared.

 

If you would say suspect instead of expect then I would agree. To say that user should expect being spied on is to victim blame that user.
I suspect Google and most other big tech are spying, but I don't expect it. I expect companies to treat users with dignity that includes respect of user privacy.

 

What? I never said the user should expect to be "spied on". In fact, I never said anything about anyone spying on anyone!

I said, and you quoted it, "users should expect that information is being shared".

If anyone is being spied on, it is the neighbors across the street from the user's Ring and everyone (regardless their innocence) walking up to the user's front door.

If you are going to accuse me of saying something, then please ensure it is something I actually said.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure I understand this either. To me, audio recording should not be happening unless and until the Ring owner "answers" a visitor ringing the bell.

For that matter, IMO, Ring (and its competitors) should work with our local network only. I wonder what happens if we block its access to the Internet in our routers? Does it become a basic door bell?

This is looking more and more like the same reason I do not and will never have an Alexa, Siri, etc. in my house. Those devices MUST be listening all the time - or else they would not know to respond to their name being called.

 

"Amazon-Owned MGM to Produce Reality Show Featuring Ring Camera Footage...

Hosted by Wanda Sykes, Ring Nation sounds like a dystopian America's Funniest Home Videos, with clips pulled from Amazon-owned Ring's security cameras and video doorbells..."

https://www.pcmag.com/news/amazon-owned-mgm-to-produce-reality-show-featuring-ring-camera-footage

 

Me neither.

 

There is a report just posted to Twitter that Ring has been ransomed by the ALPHV group.

https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1635427567271329792

No mainstream media has reported it yet so this is still preliminary. But this source is usually legit. We shall see.

Edit: the issue is now widely reported, including articles by Frobes and Security Week. Amazon will not confirm it but a report says that in a correspondence, Amazon said "...the right security teams are engaged.." even though the actual attack is denied.

There is further info about the ALPHV group which recently published compromising photos of cancer patients at a ransomed hospital which refused to pay.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3...ing-reportedly-suffers-ransomware-attack.html