At first glance of Amazon’s new patent application, one would be tempted to think it no more than a built-in “smart” security system.
But no, this facial recognition surveillance doorbell does a lot more than record would-be thieves.
Ding! Dong! Prepare to be downright disturbed.
According to a new report, the patent application, made available in late November, would pair facial surveillance such as Rekognition, the product that Amazon is aggressively marketing to law enforcement, with Ring – a doorbell camera company that Amazon acquired in 2018.
CNN writes, “Amazon’s application says the process leads to safer, more connected neighborhoods, as well as better informed homeowners and law enforcement.”
Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. Here’s another:
Amazon is dreaming of a dangerous future, with its technology at the center of a massive decentralized surveillance network, running real-time facial recognition on members of the public using cameras installed in people’s doorbells. –Jacob Snow, ACLU
Wow. Do you feel safer yet?
This tech isn’t really there to protect your house or neighborhood.
It’s going to record all who walk by and gather composite images and recordings that can be stored in a cloud and accessed by law enforcement to help surveil and catch suspects.
One of the main problems – besides the obvious privacy violations and smashing the 4th amendment to smithereens – is that facial recognition has been abysmal so far. That means if a database determines you are a suspect because you bear a striking resemblance, then the police could show up and detain you before you even drop off the potato salad to your next potluck.
Snow writes:
While the details are sketchy, the application describes a system that the police can use to match the faces of people walking by a doorbell camera with a photo database of persons they deem “suspicious.” Likewise, homeowners can also add photos of “suspicious” people into the system and then the doorbell’s facial recognition program will scan anyone passing their home. In either case, if a match occurs, the person’s face can be automatically sent to law enforcement, and the police could arrive in minutes.
It would be far too easy to get yourself on a “list” with this technology
The application describes creating a database of suspicious persons. Unwanted visitors would be added to the list when a homeowner tags them as not authorized. Other people could be added to the database because they are a convicted felon or registered sex offender, according to the application. Residents may also alert neighbors of a suspicious person’s presence.But some people, such as a mail courier, could be placed on an authorized persons list. Postal service logos could be used to help identify them.
Putting people on a naughty list? Wait, doesn’t that all sound eerily similar to the social credit system rolled out in China?
“The patent describes the neighborhood surveillance system as an opt-in service,” CNN adds.
But really, it is not possible to opt out of broad brushstroke surveillance. How can I opt out of my neighbor (and Amazon, and the government) storing everything about me in the Cloud? What if my neighbor hates that my tree branch hangs over their fence? Will I go on their suspicious persons list?
Remember when Amazon just sold books?
“As a former patent litigator, I’ve spent a lot of time reading patents. It’s rare for patent applications to lay out, in such nightmarish detail, the world a company wants to bring about,” writes Jacob Snow in a recent ACLU report on the newest invasive technology by the company that only 10 years ago just sold…books.
Is Justice blind or prejudiced?
“These systems threaten to further entangle people with law enforcement, ripping families apart and increasing the likelihood of racially biased police violence,” Snow claims.
He adds, “this technology puts activists and protesters in danger when exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Tests from the ACLU showed that facial recognition doesn’t correctly identify people and this leaves the door wide open to let A.I. do the justice. That means innocent people could be filling up the privatized prison system.
The ACLU tested the software, and…
The ACLU tested the Rekognition software and proved that it incorrectly identified members of Congress as common criminals. Yes, the irony would be giggle-inducing in a John Oliver segment, but not so much for the innocent person serving life in prison.
This glaring inaccuracy prompted Amazon shareholders to urge the company to stop selling this tech to law enforcement. The recent patent application serves as a flippant disregard for that plea.
“The application also undercuts Amazon’s own purported defense of its face surveillance product. The company has told the public that biometrics should only be used by law enforcement as an aid, not a replacement, to human judgment. But Amazon’s patent application is pushing the technology toward automation, removing human judgment from the identification process, and instead potentially relying on data, like arrest photos, that itself is a record of racially discriminatory policing,” says Snow.
The ACLU notes that facial recognition is even less accurate for darker skinned people and that this technology paves the way for harassment and wrongful action against the formerly incarcerated. But for activists, too.
Here is a figure of the doorbell and the surveillance scope. Check out the rest of the patent application HERE:
That’s Not All, Folks!
Snow warns that the patent makes it painfully clear that this surveillance tech will not be limited to doorbells or homes.
Any complementary audio or visual device – Cough! Echo! Cough! – can be set up for biometric scanning.
Amazon is expecting to target a bevy of other biometrics such as:
- fingerprints
- skin-texture analysis
- DNA, palm-vein analysis
- hand geometry
- iris recognition
- odor/scent recognition
In addition, the surveillance tech could even include recognition based on behavioral characteristics, like:
- typing rhythm
- gait
- voice recognition
Imagine a doorbell – or in-home device – that can do all that.
Do we even know each other as well as Amazon will know us?
For Snow…“It confirms that Amazon wants to enable the tracking of everyone, everywhere, all the time. And it’s apparently happy to deliver that data to the government.”
We always knew the government had boundary issues but this is just TMI – too much intimacy.
A lot of people are comfy and cozy with the idea that they are being watched all the time, like the people lining up to be scanned at the airport to save two seconds of their time.
For me, being watched under a microscope by my government makes every nerve of my being burn with the fire of a thousand hells with the added dread that there is not one minute of reprieve, nor any identity of my own except to be an eyeballed object of the all mighty, omnipresent State.
But, hey, that’s just me…
You can’t escape this recognition tech.
If you go to someone’s house, you’ll be on the digital record.
Imagine if a neighborhood was set up with these doorbell cameras. Simply walking up to a friend’s house could result in your face, your fingerprint, or your voice being flagged as “suspicious” and delivered to a government database without your knowledge or consent. With Amazon selling the devices, operating the servers, and pushing the technology on law enforcement, the company is building all the pieces of a surveillance network, reaching from the government all the way to our front doors.
Like I said before when I wrote about biometrics at the Atlanta International airport: it’s nearly impossible to avoid facial recognition technology today.
Yet, we do still have control over how we spend our money, our voice, and with whom we spend our time. It’s not much control in the grand scheme of things but if we rise up and fight this, our great grandchildren will honor us.
That is, if they will even understand the concept of privacy by the time they get here…
What do you think of all this?
It seems like every day I stumble across a new piece of creepy tech that someone wants to add to our every day lives under the guise of “convenience” and “safety.” How will you avoid getting caught in the net? Are you creeped out by this stuff?
I truly don’t understand why they want to know everything about everyone. Well, I do understand that there needs to be this for the NWO. I am going to as long as I can stay away from it all. I made a trip in Nov to see friends in CA and two of the homes had Alexa or Suri. I frankly, was not at all happy about that. But it shows no matter what, you can’t avoid it all. In the future, I may ask anyone I am visiting that they unplug it or meet in a public place. Of course there we will be watched and face recognition will be tracking and perhaps depending on the sophistication of the tech, our conversation will be taped. No. I am not paranoid, or am I?
It’s not paranoia if they really are after you.
And these people are.
“What? You got something to hide?”
— James comey
The three laws are perfect. This is for your own protection. Just lay back and think of England.
Because the more they know about you easier it is to control you. One thing you may not understand about the left is that they fundamentally insecure at a subconscious level (bad toilet training). Because of this condition they feel a sense of fear over anything they can’t control in some way… if they can control it, they don’t need to be afraid of it. This one reason that they don’t seek a president… they seek an all knowing father figure… again to feel safe. Knowing who and where everyone is will be intoxicating to them, they will make all manners of excuses.
Here are two creepy encounters I’ve had in the last week with Amazon.
I looked on my Kindle for a book I wanted to purchase. It wasn’t there, but there was that “recommended for you” thing. I was curious, so I clicked on the “more” part. Several dozen books popped up and I realized that they were tied to searches I had done on Yahoo! over the last several months. A cookbook for slow cooker recipes, a book about a medical condition I had looked up etc. Creeped me out.
But that wasn’t all.
A few months back I had my credit card number stolen. Not the card – just the number. The company alerted me, we stopped it and I was issued a new card. No problem.
Then, I didn’t buy anything from Amazon for a while because I thought I needed to change my “one click” info with the new info. Yesterday, I decided to buy a couple of new books for my Kindle and expected to have to enter my new card number. A really old card was on file, and I removed it. The stolen card was on file and I removed it. But – wait for it – the NEW CARD was already there. Now I’m really creeped.
Thank goodness I live out in the country where no neighbor’s door bell will see me. Not yet anyway.
Thankfully, none of this will ever come to my neighborhood. You see, I live in a fairly rural area on 18 acres of land. It may very well hit the cities and towns I visit, but not any of the homes around me. On top of that, I am prone to skin cancer on my ears and neck. I have adopted the advice of my dermatologist. I always wear a wide brimmed hat when I go out. It covers most of my face and as a result, any camera looking down will not see my face nor skin on my arms since I wear long sleeved shirts all of the time. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, I wear long sleeved shirts and my floppy brimmed fishing hat.
I think that the “potential” for this technology is horrific.
However, if you read the Amazon reviews for the RING app, you will see that one of the biggest complaints is that the camera is Too Slow to begin capturing images immediately after the bell is rung. (It often shows the back side of a porch pirate when he/she is walking away with your package, but misses their face.)
So for the moment, you probably don’t have to worry about your image being transmitted straight to Evil Entity Central each time you simply walk down the sidewalk in front of a house with a doorbell camera. But it’s “coming to your neighborhood soon.”
Interesting article. I personally very much like and use my echo, and have a ring video doorbell makes me feel a lot safer, but I never though about some of the other aspects you’ve mentioned. I hate the thought of having something tracking me in a store. Thanks for all you do. I really appreciate your website.
Also, I point this out because I would want to know. “It would be far to easy to get yourself on a “list” with this technology” – Needs to be TOO easy. Please don’t flame me because I pointed out a typo, folks. As I said, just pointing it out because I would want to know (as I’m liable to make many of them). Not claiming to be perfect or a spelling/punctuation expert, and it’s not a personal attack. Peace!
Thank you!
Please, not so many disclaimers. lol No one here is going to bite you. Since I’m probably older than you are, and therefore not as much bothered if somebody gets offended if I point things out, I’ll say it for you: if Americans cannot produce a piece of written work in simple standard English without making a botch of it, nobody is going to take either the work or the author seriously. What readers are going to think is that either it was a careless copy and paste job or the writer is a Common Core graduate.:) If the message is important, it’s worth taking as much trouble and time as you need to get it right in every detail.
Unfortunately, whatever version of auto-correct we’re using knows even less than most of us, including professional ‘journalists,’ so we are constantly seeing little gems like: ‘loose’ when we meant to say ‘lose,’ ‘effect’ when we meant to say ‘affect,’ and the disappearance of ordinary contractions like ‘you’re,’ which confuses foreign readers no end. I know what you mean by getting ‘flamed’ when you point it out too. Because, like all survivalists, I’m properly paranoid, I suggest it’s by design! Muddled writing = muddled thinking. It doesn’t matter which one you do first: the other is bound to follow.
I might be tempted to agree with you about feeling safer with all this facial recognition being used everywhere except for the fact that nobody seems to be doing anything constructive with it. Sought-after criminals continue to run loose not because nobody can find them but rather lazy bureaucracies and liberal judges refuse to act on the information they obtain, by whatever means. When you see ‘racial profiling’ thrown into the narrative, you already know that excuses for inaction have been prepared. I live in the Southwest and see this swinging-door criminal justice every day. I think that’s why so many nutcases and terrorists like to come here: because anything goes and nobody cares.
I know I’ve already been mis-identified on fakebook–someone else was “tagged” as me in a photo. All of us were puzzled–no one had tagged the photos yet, and of course the other person and I ride horses that look nothing alike, so we knew *we* hadn’t done it–had to be something new on fakebook, doing facial recognition now.
“That means innocent people could be filling up the privatized prison system.” Remember, in today’s society, the prosecutor’s job is to find someone guilty of something – not that justice be done. Everyone is suspected of breaking the law because with so many laws on the books, chances are you have broken some stupid law everyday. If you look like a nail, you will get hammered.
Stop participating. Stop playing their game. Get off social media. Cut the cable TV. Don’t use Amazon for anything. Dump Alphabet and their spyware. Use DuckDuckGo to search, or TOR. Use a VPN. Secure email. Encryption.
Screw up their algorithms by doing silly searches for stupid things to mess with their AI. “How many amoebas can you put on a head of a pin?” “How many troglodytes are wearing yellow pants.” Have fun.
That’s easy. Troglodytes wear brown pants to keep the cave dirt from showing too much. Yellow would be a fashion faux pas. Seriously though, this is a great suggestion!
You made your best point in the first paragraph. There are so many new laws being written every single year, it’s practically impossible to avoid breaking at least one of them at some time in our lives. In the States, as annoying as our federal government can be about that, it’s the local one we should be watching more closely and the truth is that most Americans do not. They’ll make an effort to participate in a national election and a few state elections – even so, 47% of us isn’t bothering to cast a vote at all – but who’s on your City Council and County Commission never makes it to the top ten in business to attend to and that’s where some of the most ridiculous, meddling and unconstitutional legislating happens.
I’m not sure I can agree with the rest as a practicable alternative: ‘just get off the grid!’ so to speak. We’re on it right now, aren’t we? So is most of society in the First World, so it stands to reason that those who do not participate are going to attract more notice and curiosity than those who do. What matters, to us and to those doing the data collection, is what kind of data we’re offering. Give them a set of interests and hobbies, then pay attention to those things enough to create the kind of profile you want. I find ‘social media’ like Facebook more trouble to keep up than it’s worth but when I did have an account, all I had on it was every animal shelter in my region, some national organizations for the same and organic gardening. ho hum.
I can’t imagine giving up Amazon! (lol) I live way out in the sticks, what you might call a good bugout location and one of the problems with that is that there isn’t anything useful to buy within 100 miles of me, and if there were, it would cost at least twice what I’d pay shopping online for the same thing. But the government doesn’t have a lot of interest in harmless seniors buying a lot of organic pet food and signing petitions every day for animal welfare and the environment, does it? My biggest presence online is what my particular demographic is already best known for: volunteering for charities, political grassroots and in general, having a light and gentle footprint upon the earth. Put together, that’s about as safe and ‘politically correct’ as one could get and I didn’t even have to lie or mislead – or give up my internet shopping.
Who wrote this article first or who stole it from whom?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-21/amazons-creepy-facial-recognition-doorbell-will-surveil-entire-neighborhood-peoples
The exact same article, word for word.
Nobody stole it. 🙂 The article was published here first but we allow other websites to republish our articles as long as they include a link back to our website. We want to spread the word!
*far too easy to
Yet another way to get us all thinking of each other as threats, to make us all paranoid, to keep us from visiting people we don’t know well, to divide and conquer….