A Boring Dystopia

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Big Brother just got an upgrade. Starting December, Amazon’s Ring cameras will scan and recognize faces. Don’t want to be in their database? Too bad — walk past a Ring and your face can be stored... (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 days ago by jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world

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Jason Bassler | @JasonBassler1

Big Brother just got an upgrade.

Starting December, Amazon’s Ring cameras will scan and recognize faces. Don’t want to be in their database? Too bad — walk past a Ring and your face can be stored, tagged, & analyzed without consent.

One step closer to total surveillance.

[Image: A Ring doorbell camera mounted on a brick wall. A digital overlay shows facial recognition scanning a person's face with grid lines. Text on the right reads "Amazon's Ring Adds Facial Recognition to Home Security" with additional text below.]

6:00 PM | Oct 4, 2025

Source: https://x.com/JasonBassler1/status/1974640686419857516

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[–] stickly@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago

No the problem is the cameras, full stop. You can't shift the cultural safety norm to require millions of remotely accessible cameras and expect a company or government to not abuse them.

The only reason for the popularity of these cameras is big tech's marketing and business strategy. Amazon made a shit ton of money throwing expensive stuff on your unattended doorstep. That leads to obvious problems and the only ways out are:

Amazon spends money on proper, secure delivery ❌
The customer pays extra in time and money for an existing solution (CCTVs have existed since 1927) ❌
Amazon subsidizes a shiny new "solution" which is a thinly veiled data harvesting platform that will generate even more money ✅✅✅

Even if they were concerned with data collection consent, there is no way to get it by the very nature of an always-on, public facing camera. And if it wasn't that, it would be a fancy peephole.

I inherited one of these cameras on a previous home and it objectively provided no real value to me. It recorded the coming/going of my neighbors, bugs flying in front of it, visitors who had already texted their ETA, and delivery guys taking pictures that got sent to me seconds later.

The "peace of mind" factor quickly evaporated when the neighborhood feed was constant posts warning of homeless people or someone walking at night or anyone in a hoodie. Any post where there was a legitimate crime was someone in a mask covering the camera. So how exactly was it keeping anyone safe?

On the other hand, Amazon got incredible value from years of recording everyone's movements. The fact that rubes will pay a few dollars a month to defray hosting costs for the goldmine of a 24/7 live stream is gravy.