What happens to the data that smart home cameras collect? Can law enforcement access this information – even when users aren’t aware officers may be viewing their footage? Two recent events have put these concerns in the spotlight.
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A Super Bowl ad by the doorbell-camera company Ring and the FBI’s pursuit of the kidnapper of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie, have resurfaced longstanding concerns about surveillance against a backdrop of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The fear is that home cameras’ video feeds could become yet another part of the government’s mass surveillance apparatus.
Ring’s Super Bowl ad appeared intended to inspire hope: a neighborhood harnessing the power of technology to find a lost dog: a distraught girl misses her pet, Milo, who has gone missing. Gone are the times of putting up “missing” posters.
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