By Aaron Strow
This past Super Bowl, one company’s advertisement gave particularly strong feelings of dystopia. All at once, it seemed like the mass surveillance tropes of novels like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale had come to reality. Ring, a company primarily known for producing doorbell cameras, has showcased its plans to create a network of such cameras (called “Search Party”) to identify and track missing dogs using artificial intelligence.
In charting how we came to be on the edge of constant monitoring, it might seem logical to point a finger at the initial introduction of these cameras. However, for most people, their isolated cameras have given them a heightened sense of comfort. Truthfully, Ring cameras are an efficient means of preventing package theft and can serve as a deterrent to potential burglars.
On paper, it seems like expanding the domain of individual cameras to encompass whole neighborhoods and societies would increase their effectiveness. For example, take what the Super Bowl ad showed, lost dogs could more easily be found with the aid of a connected system.
Yet, there are crucial concerns about where the line is drawn. Couldn’t this web of cameras be expanded past lost dogs and applied to tracking people themselves? How could a company like Ring avoid the persuasive hand of the government if it required them to do such a thing?
To help prevent this, I personally believe information on the coverage of Ring cameras should be informed to all houseowners in a community or area. Preferably, people should remain in control of their own recordings and decide when they want to share them.
Robbie Stein, a sophomore at Irvington High School, said: “I think that the security cameras are helpful, but companies shouldn’t have automatic access to footage from people’s cameras because it is an invasion of privacy.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that large networks of private cameras could dismantle the barrier between law enforcement and individual rights. They pointed out how this system, or even surveillance, goes beyond what most people consider reasonable.
Clearly, technology should not be used in a way that makes people feel unsafe or watched. Ring needs to find a balance between the safety of the people using it and the privacy of their daily activities.
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