Ring denies being ‘mass surveillance’ but AI dog tracking will continue

Ring’s been in damage-control mode ever since its now-infamous “lost dog” Super Bowl ad, furiously spinning the sinister imagery of digital “bounding boxes” locking in on a wayward pooch and a simulated aerial view of dozens of homes scanning the neighborhood. 

Rather than giving off warm fuzzies—your Ring camera can help find lost dogs!—the Super Bowl ad gave off serious “big brother” vibes to many viewers. Fresh memories of the ICE raids in Minneapolis along with Ring’s planned partnership with Flock, a network of security cameras with ties to ICE, didn’t help, nor did the Nancy Guthrie case, where law enforcement officials teased videos from the missing woman’s Nest camera even though the cam didn’t have an active subscription. 

Adding fuel to the fire is word of a leaked email from Ring founder Jamie Siminoff in which he implies that Search Party’s functionality may eventually extend beyond just dogs, although it’s not clear whether he meant people or something else.

“I believe that the foundation we created with Search Party, first for finding dogs, will end up becoming one of the most important pieces of tech and innovation to truly unlock the impact of our mission,” Siminoff reportedly wrote in the email, adding that “you can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods.”

Ring has previously said that Search Party may soon work with cats and other pets. 

All those circumstances created a “perfect storm,” Ring’s founder says, leaving the company on the defensive about its most powerful AI-enabled features. 

But while Ring has backtracked on its nascent Flock deal (Ring says the partnership was never actually implemented, and denied that any Ring videos were ever shared with ICE), it’s doubling down on Search Party, with The New York Times reporting that the brand “would move forward” with the feature.

Speaking with the Times, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff admitted that the Super Bowl image of the dog-scanning houses “triggered” many viewers. But he also argued that the ubiquity of Ring cameras is “not just like mass surveillance,” noting that “you get to choose what you want to do with your individual home.” 

A Ring “Search Party” can be triggered by anyone with a lost dog who registered the missing pet using the Ring app. (The feature only works with dogs for now.) Once a Search Party is initiated, nearby Ring cameras that are participating in the feature will start keeping an eye out for the lost dog, using AI to help make a match. 

If a Ring camera does catch sight of a missing pooch, it will notify the camera’s owner, who then has the option to share—or not to share—the images with the dog’s owner. 

While Ring users don’t have to share Search Party videos if they don’t want to, Search Party functionality is enabled by default on their outdoor (not indoor) Ring cameras, a fact that I’ve previously written about.