An Amazon software engineer named Max Eliaser said the home-security company Ring should be „shut down immediately.“
„The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck,“ Eliaser said.
Eliaser’s comments were part of a post in which hundreds of Amazon employees shared their views on various company policies and products.
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An Amazon engineer criticized the home-security camera company Ring, saying it should be „shut down immediately.“
„The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society,“ Max Eliaser, an Amazon software-development engineer, said in a post published on Medium on Sunday. „The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back.“
Eliaser’s comments are striking because Ring is owned by Amazon, and Amazon’s corporate employees rarely speak out against the company. (Amazon bars employees from speaking about the company without prior approval.)
Amazon and Ring did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amazon acquired Ring, which makes video doorbells and home security cameras, in 2018. The camera company has faced scrutiny recently over privacy issues, mostly around its agreements with law-enforcement agencies and problems with hackers accessing the devices.
Ring’s own employees have also abused access to customer feeds, the company told lawmakers recently.
The Medium post quoting Eliaser included critical comments from hundreds of Amazon employees about various Amazon policies and products. It was published Sunday by the advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and meant to protest the company’s external-communications policy.
NinjaPirateKing on January 31st, 2020 at 01:54 UTC »
The S in IOT stands for security.
soiboughtafarm on January 30th, 2020 at 23:58 UTC »
There is nothing you can say that will convince me that these door bell cams will not be combined with facial recognition to sell ads and farm personal data. Sure you have the right to know if I came to your door but Amazon doesn’t.
To give a specific example my wife’s therapy office door is right near my front door. A door bell cam would pick up everyone who comes in. An algorithm could probably piece things together and start marketing self help books to these clients. Or maybe it will just sell their profile to an insurance company.
I know that this data is probably already available thanks to everyone’s cell phones but at least there is a tiny amount of choice of opting into that.
CaptainsLincolnLog on January 30th, 2020 at 22:38 UTC »
Yep, he’ll be looking for a new job on Monday.