from Hacker News

Ring Is Cashing in on the UFO Craze to Promote Its Surveillance Dystopia

by lehi on 10/6/23, 1:31 AM with 38 comments

• by nwah1 on 10/6/23, 4:04 AM

  Surveillance is inevitable as a result of technological advancement.

  It will either be centralized or decentralized.

  Individuals freely recording and sharing and collating their data can also be dystopian, of course.

  But surveillance also means accountability. For both individuals and authorities.

  Deepfakes mean that we will need ways to verify the authenticity and timestamp of recordings. And this will be solved as well.

  This could lead to a world in which violent crime and abuse of authority is almost always recorded.

  It also means no privacy, enabling digital lynch mobs, and enabling totalitarianism.

  Fending off lynch mobs, preventing totalitarianism, and finding ways to carve out sensible levels of privacy are all open perennial questions.

• by fasthands9 on 10/6/23, 3:51 AM

  I had a ring and loved it. I don't really understand most of the negative coverage of it.

  The Vice article says Ring is "delivering footage to cops without your consent" but if you click through the links this refers to cases where Ring handed over the footage after police got warrants. I realize Ring can act faster than most companies - but if you set up your own security system and the police got a warrant you'd have to hand over footage too. You cannot choose to not consent to a warrant in any case. Ring notifies you so it's not like they are being deceitful.

  I realize a lot of people on HN are super privacy minded and a Ring is not for them, but realistically if you buy a Ring you WANT to protect your home/family in which case you would happily hand over footage if police were investigating a robbery next door. That's going to protect your home/family too, which is the entire point. I understand if you are in the 1% of people that wants a home security system but doesn't want to help your neighbors then you shouldn't buy it, but that doesn't apply to the vast majority of people.

• by AlexandrB on 10/6/23, 3:15 AM

  Is it legal to run a "contest" in which you know ahead of time that no one will win the prize?

• by chiefalchemist on 10/6/23, 1:54 AM

  When I read "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" I became more concerned, yet somehow remained head-above-water optimistic. When I see articles like this one shared on HN the optimism all but disappears. Our worst traits (e.g., greed, vanity, etc) are being used against us. We're making entertainment out of our own demise.

  We have met the enemy and he / she is us.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capi...

• by Xaniity on 10/6/23, 3:54 AM

  This is amazing, lets crowd source the UFO movement.

  Maybe it will be added to this list of unclaimed prizes...

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prizes_for_evidence_of...

• by Animats on 10/6/23, 5:31 AM

  For the sheer number of surveillance cameras and phones around today, we should be getting far more UFO pictures.

  Mandatory XKCD.[1]

  There are, however, some very high performance jet powered model aircraft.[2] Amazing what thrust vectoring can do when you don't have a pilot to worry about.

  [1] https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/settled_2x.png

  [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sIeM5lBIag

• by Sparkyte on 10/6/23, 2:44 AM

  Trying to tiktokerize our life... no thank you.