| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstEssay" |
|---|
It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. |
|
<
< | Fear and Loathing on the Front Porch: Amazon’s Ring and Surveillance Capitalism |
>
> | Fear and Loathing on the Front Porch: Amazon’s Ring and “Surveillance” Capitalism |
| | -- By JoseMartinez - 09 Oct 2020 |
|
<
< | While most technology companies profit from consumers’ fear of missing out, Ring prefers to home in simply on their fear. Ring, Amazon home security company, produces video doorbells that record suspicious activity and offers a social platform for users to upload and interact with footage. In so doing, Ring’s entire model hinges not only on literal surveillance, but also on surveillance capitalism as it commodifies its users’ personal data (their worst fears included). What’s more, the company has partnered with police departments throughout the country to market its product and to facilitate information sharing with the state. Amazon’s profitable foray into home security has the potential to erode community relationships and civil liberties. |
>
> | While most technology companies profit from consumers’ fear of missing out, Ring prefers to home in simply on their fear. Ring, Amazon home security company, produces video doorbells that record suspicious activity and offers a social platform for users to upload and interact with footage. In so doing, Ring’s entire model hinges not only on literal surveillance, but also on surveillance capitalism as it commodifies its users’ personal data (their worst fears included). Additionally, the company has partnered with police departments throughout the United States to market its product and to facilitate information sharing with the state. Amazon’s profitable foray into home security has the potential to erode community relationships and civil liberties. |
| | Won’t You Be My Neighbor? |
| | And like many products and services, Ring was acquired by a tech behemoth. In 2018, Amazon purchased the company for $1.1 billion, which enabled it to enter the home security market. Later that year, Ring launched Neighbors, a mobile application where users share and discuss posts related to crime and safety in their neighborhood, including footage recorded from doorbell cameras. |
|
<
< | User Engagement |
>
> | How Ring Engages Users |
| | |
|
<
< | The primary way a Ring doorbell owner interacts with the product is not revolutionary: Users receive notifications on their phone when someone rings the doorbell or if someone or something is detected by the camera. Users are able to interact through the mobile application and can respond to the person ringing and save the recorded footage. |
>
> | The primary way a Ring doorbell owner interacts with the product is not revolutionary: Users receive notifications on their phone when someone rings the doorbell or if someone or something is detected by the camera. Users are able to interact through the mobile application and can respond to the person ringing and save the recorded footage. As part of its subscription service, Ring also stores data for longer and provides other monitoring services for users. |
| | The secondary means by which Ring encourages engagement is through its social platform. In the Neighbors application, doorbell owners and non-owners who can simply download the app can report suspicious activity in a given geographic area. Users display anonymous identifiers (i.e., Neighbor43) and may upload videos from their doorbell cameras or submit text posts to highlight suspicious activity. Digests of happenings in a neighborhood are sent out frequently, as well as notifications of events which a user deems critical enough to warrant a notification for all users. |
|
<
< | Consequences and Implications |
>
> | No, Really, Be My Neighbor |
| | |
|
<
< | However, by design, Ring is not simply a tool for the user to be in the know—instead, it commands attention and triggers the user’s emotions to generate more interaction with the application and demand for Ring’s other security products. As users are peppered with notifications about happenings in their neighborhood, a user becomes thrusted into a feedback loop in which other people’s fears and distrust are reflected to them on a legitimized platform which purports to make neighborhoods safer. |
>
> | Consequences and Implications of Ring’s Services |
| | |
|
<
< | Moreover, while proponents envision Ring as a modern neighborhood watch, it also amplifies the dangers of neighborhood watch groups in the first place. Users are quick to raise the alarm when a suspicious courier walks by their camera or when multiple people are gathered together. There is, then, a heightened potential for neighborhoods to take action against people deemed suspicious by an anonymous reporting online that reaches a considerably large amount of people. |
>
> | However, by design, Ring is not simply a tool for the user to receive information about their own household—instead, it commands attention and triggers the user’s emotions to generate more interaction with the application and demand for Ring’s other security products. As users are peppered with notifications about happenings in their neighborhood, a user becomes thrusted into a feedback loop in which other people’s fears and distrust are reflected to them on a legitimized platform which purports to make neighborhoods safer. |
| | |
|
<
< | Finally, Ring’s doorbell recording itself also poses data privacy concerns. The software can recognize people who come into the camera’s view and footage is centrally stored in Amazon’s cloud servers. A user’s data is also critical for increased engagement with the services as users receive notifications and content from Ring’s advertising partners based on their location. |
>
> | Moreover, while proponents envision Ring as a modern neighborhood watch, it also amplifies the dangers of neighborhood watch groups in the first place. Users are quick to raise the alarm when a suspicious courier walks by their camera or when multiple people are gathered together. There is, then, a heightened potential for neighborhoods to take action against people deemed suspicious by an anonymous report made online that ultimately reaches a considerably large amount of people. |
| | |
|
<
< | No, Really, Be My Neighbor |
>
> | Finally, Ring’s doorbell recording itself also poses data privacy concerns. The software can recognize people who come into the camera’s view and footage is centrally stored in Amazon’s cloud servers. A user’s data is also critical for increased engagement with the services as users receive notifications and content from Ring’s advertising partners based on their location. |
| | Relationships with Police Departments |
|
<
< | Data Sharing with the State |
>
> | Perhaps more concerning than Ring’s engagement strategy is its ongoing pursuit of partnerships with law enforcement agencies. Since the company was started, it has partnered with over 400 police forces in the United States. Like its promise to its users, these relationships are predicated on making neighborhoods safer.
One dimension of this relationship involves the direct marketing of devices through the police. In some instances, Ring has offered discounted and bulk sales of its products for law enforcement agencies and the agencies in turn distribute them throughout communities. As a result, Ring is able to portray itself as an arm of the state to at least spread its brand, if not to sell more devices outright.
The other major way in which Ring works with law enforcement is by giving police a direct channel to its users. In some places, Ring allows police to contact its users so that they may directly request footage from a user living in an area where a crime has occurred. While users may deny the request, Amazon also complies with search warrants requesting video footage and there is no indication of whether the company or police agree to limit the sharing in any way. As such, recordings by a user’s own devices on their property can conceivably be used against them or other people without ever being aware. |
| | Conclusion |
|
>
> | In sum, Amazon Ring’s model offers a perfected execution of a service in the age of surveillance capitalism. Like other services and applications, the product competes for a user’s attention. However, by exploiting people’s fears about their safety and that of their property, Ring is able to most effectively turn user’s data into profit under the guise of protecting communities. Yet, its effects on neighbor relations and its cooperation with the state raises other questions about the safety and security of its users moving forward. |
| |
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. |