Let's talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
What does it really mean to be a neighbor? It's just everyday people. You know, it's just people who are retired. They have a couple hours in the afternoon, so they're going to do patrols. And it's people who are, you know, real estate agents driving around, like trying to track how ICE is moving and alert neighbors when things are not safe. The rise of mutual aid in times of crisis. That's this week on Explain It To Me. New episodes Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts.
Today, let's talk about the camera company Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state. Hello, and welcome to Decoder.
How did Ring's Search Party commercial become controversial?
I'm Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. You probably saw this ad during the Super Bowl a couple weekends ago.
This is Milo. Pets are family. But every year, 10 million go missing. And the way we look for them hasn't changed in years. Until now. One post of a dog's photo in the Ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match. Search Party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs. Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family.
What are the privacy concerns surrounding Ring's technology?
Be a hero in your neighborhood with Search Party. Available to everyone for free right now. Join the neighborhood at ring.com.
Since it aired for a massive audience at the Super Bowl, Ring's search party commercial has become a lightning rod for controversy. It's easy to see how the same technology that can be used to find lost dogs can also be used to find people, and then used to invade our privacy in all kinds of uncomfortable ways, by cops and regular people alike. And Ring, in particular, has always been proud of its cooperation with law enforcement, which has raised big questions about civil rights. Especially because Ring had proudly announced a partnership with a company called Flock Safety, whose systems have been accessed by ICE. There's some complication to that. We'll come back to it. Anyway, the backlash to that ring ad was swift, intense, and effective.
How has Ring responded to backlash against its surveillance practices?
The data company Peak Metrics says conversation about the ad on social media platforms like X actually hit a high two days after the Super Bowl. And the vibes, as they measured them, were strikingly negative. I mean, you know it's bad when Matt Nelson, who runs We Rate Dogs, is posting things like this.
Neither Ring's products nor business model are built around finding lost pets, but rather creating a lucrative mass surveillance network by turning private homes into surveillance outposts and well-meaning neighbors into informants for ICE and other government agencies.
Senator Ed Markey called the ad dystopian and said it was proof that Amazon, which owns Ring, needed to cease all facial recognition technology on Ring doorbells. He said, quote, "'This definitely isn't about dogs. It's about mass surveillance.'" And then on Thursday, February 12th, just four days after the Super Bowl, Ring announced that it was canceling its partnership with Flock in a statement first reported by The Verge's Jen Toohey. That statement is itself a lot. Ring says, quote, following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated.
What role does AI play in Ring's crime prevention strategy?
As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration. The integration never launched, so no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety. Ring, in this statement, also goes on to say that Ring cameras were used by police in identifying a school shooter at Brown University in December 2025. That's an odd non sequitur in a press release about canceling a controversial partnership. that really explains a lot about Ring and how the company sees itself. As it happens, Ring's founder, Jamie Siminoff, was just on Decoder a few months ago, talking about how and why he founded the company and in detail about why he sees Ring's mission as eliminating crime, not selling cameras or doorbells or floodlights or anything else Ring makes, but getting rid of crime.
And we actually talked about Dog Search Party and how people might feel about that kind of surveillance and how Ring works with the cops quite a bit.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–0:44
2
How did Ring's Search Party commercial become controversial?
0:44–1:14
3
What are the privacy concerns surrounding Ring's technology?
1:14–2:04
4
How has Ring responded to backlash against its surveillance practices?
2:04–3:10
5
What role does AI play in Ring's crime prevention strategy?
3:10–4:09
6
How does Ring's partnership with law enforcement impact civil rights?
4:09–4:31
7
What are the implications of using AI for neighborhood safety?
4:31–5:25
8
How can technology be balanced with privacy and civil liberties?
5:25–25:09
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Decoder with Nilay Patel
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