MGM (which is owned by Amazon) is making a viral video show based on footage from Ring (also owned by Amazon) security cameras. The syndicated TV show, “Ring Nation,” is set to be a modern, surveillance-tinged spin on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” with Wanda Sykes as host.
According to a report from Deadline, the show will feature Ring footage of “neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions, and goofy animals.” Ring is also known for activities such as accidentally leaking people’s home addresses and handing over images to the government without users’ permission.
Between January and July of this year, Amazon shared images of the doorbell with US authorities 11 times without the consent of the device’s owner. Ring has been criticized for working unusually closely with at least 2,200 police departments in the United States, allowing police to request video doorbell camera footage from homeowners through the Ring’s Neighbors app. Like Citizen and Nextdoor, the Neighbors app tracks local crime and allows users to comment anonymously; additionally, Ring’s law enforcement partners can publicly request video footage on the app.
An Amazon-owned police surveillance network is bad enough, but Neighbors users have also faced repeated security issues.
An MGM executive, Barry Poznick, praised the new show: “From the awesome, to the funny and uplifting must-see viral moments from across the country every day, Ring Nation offers something for everyone to watch at home.”
But perhaps what viewers at home really want is data privacy.
Ring only began disclosing its connections to law enforcement after responding to transparency demands from the US government. In a 2019 letter, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) said the company’s relationship with police forces raises civil liberties concerns.
“Integrating Ring’s camera network with law enforcement offices could easily create a surveillance network that places dangerous burdens on people of color and fuels racial anxieties in local communities,” Senator Markey wrote. “In light of evidence that existing facial recognition technology disproportionately misidentifies African Americans and Latinos, a product like this has the potential to catalyze racial profiling and harm people of color.”
Amazon bought the smart video doorbell company in 2018 for $1 billion, then bought MGM for $8.5 billion earlier this year. Now these two inversions, seemingly nothing to do with each other, are merging together to create a late-capitalist dystopian spectacular that we couldn’t have imagined in our worst nightmares. Amazon also just spent $1.7 billion on iRobot, the maker of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, but we’re hard-pressed to imagine how that acquisition could one day inspire a scary TV show.
Source: techcrunch.com