Super Bowl Ad for Ring Cameras Touted AI Surveillance Network

[cbabe]

https://truthout.org/articles/super-bowl-ad-for-ring-cameras-touted-ai-surveillance-network/

Super Bowl Ad for Ring Cameras Touted AI Surveillance Network

Ring’s AI-powered network is likely to be used in its partnerships with law enforcement and agencies like ICE.

By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT
Published February 9, 2026

However, the attempt at telling a heartwarming story of reuniting dogs with their owners masks Ring’s true intentions of creating a nationwide surveillance system, analysts noted.

“It starts with searching for a ‘brown dog’ but means the tech is there for license plate reading, face recognition, searching for suspects by description, etc,” wrote surveillance and policing expert and scholar Matthew Guariglia on social media. “We already know they have a form cops can fill out to get access to footage without warrant or permission in an ‘emergency’ as determined by them. What will this mean for new features?”

Guariglia noted that Ring would likely make the AI-powered features on by default, requiring users to manually search their settings to turn it off.

Indeed, Ring has come under intense scrutiny for its collaboration with the criminal legal system, especially through its partnerships directly with police and with surveillance companies Flock and Axon, which grant law enforcement access to an enormous amount of information, including tracking of individuals, license plate recognition, and more.

Flock’s dragnet has been used by federal immigration agents to track immigrants and search for a person who received an abortion. It has also helped corporations make watch lists, following in the history of corporate blacklists of labor and social movement organizers.

… more …

Searching for brown ‘dogs’ … uh huh.)

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. Oh, but we are only searching for brown dogs.

They thing we are ALL idiots, not just the 38%.

[indusurb]

2. America has built, and is expanding a dystopian surveillance nework

And it is being funded, for the most part, by private citizens. The majority of citizens and businesses have bought a security/camera setup, fueled by fear. I would bet good money, based on living in a rural area, the the houses with the most cameras per house are located in rural areas, which are the least likely to be hit by crime. I know one neighbor that has ten cameras covering their house inside and out.. Another has fifteen, again inside and out.

I know that these camera companies say that you have to give permission for the police to access your camera, but that is worth less than the paper it's printed on.

The best deterrent to crime is having a big dog, with a big bark in your home. It doesn't have to be a mean dog, just one that barks when a stranger approaches the house. Most criminals don't want to take their chances in having to deal with a big dog. Decades ago I lived in a sketchy part of the city. In the ten years I lived there all of my immediate neighbor, to each side and across the street, were broken into. I had a golden retriever mix, great friendly dog, but one who would bark and growl when anybody approached the house, and I never was the victim of crime.

The security industry is making a fortune on the fear that is pumped into our society, and we're creating a dystopia surveillance society because of it. Don't fall for the fear, get a dog.

[Jedi Guy]

5. "The best deterrent to crime is having a big dog, with a big bark in your home."

I agree with you. We have a chocolate Labrador. He's a big boy, around 90 lbs, and he has a big boy bark. Whenever someone comes to the door he's at the top of the steps barking his fool head off, especially if I'm not home and it's just my wife and him. He's hyperprotective of her. And people are very rattled when they see him at the top of the stairs.

He's the gentlest, sweetest, kindest dog and he just lights up when he sees people and wants nothing more than to make a new friend. But if someone ever broke into our house I suspect it wouldn't be pretty.

[mopinko]

3. my neighbor w a ring gets more paranoid every day.

they send out notifications to neighbors of every thing that happens. i’m not sure exactly what network they use, but ppl also report crimes on nearby public transit.
every porch pirate and pick pocket is big news. to hear this guy talk you’d think we live in dystopia. but i’ve lived next door to the guy for almost 40 yrs and have been the victim of almost nothing.
he barely leaves his house anymore. he’s in a dark, dark place.

there’s a line that i dont want to cross.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Just incredible people are willing to cede this much freedom

Cannot get on board with Ring cameras and the idea they find lost pets any more effectively than social media seems tenuous.

I am using AI daily as an engineer now though. In my work I am required to read and understand hundreds of documents if only for reference occasionally. Uploading the docs to an AI and then asking the AI questions about it is proving extremely useful.