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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Amazon has confirmed that civil rights organizations were correct about the threats Ring technology and police partnerships pose to privacy and civil liberties in statements to U.S. Senator Edward Markey.
Yesterday, Senator Markey released disturbing findings from his investigation into Amazon Ring. His findings reveal Amazon fails to provide any meaningful safeguards to protect data, privacy, or civil liberties. With over 600 partnerships across the country, millions of Americans are being swept up in captured video footage without any knowledge of the threats. And now Amazon openly admits that it has enacted no policies or oversight to protect them. They are completely vulnerable to the whims of whoever gains access to surveillance footage whether it be Amazon employees, police departments, or hackers taking advantage of Amazon’s lax security protections.
“Amazon plays on people’s fears to sell them surveillance products, and then turns around and puts them and their neighbors in danger,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future. “Through consumer products like Ring, Amazon is collecting footage and all the data needed to build a nationwide surveillance network. They leverage government relationships to promote their own products, gain consumer trust and secure their position in the market. This is an unprecedented assault on our security, constitutionally protected rights, and communities. Amazon’s admissions to Senator Markey show that we need an immediate full scale Congressional investigation into this tech titan’s surveillance practices.”
Source: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2019-11-20-amazon-admits-it-has-enacted-zero-civil-liberties/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 24 2019, @01:01AM (2 children)
I don't want to live in a world where the government is expected to protect you from everything and people are never required to think for themselves. Now if companies are lying about what they're doing with the data that's different and should be illegal.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday November 24 2019, @02:55AM (1 child)
How exactly are single thinking individuals going to protect themselves from Amazon? You yourself may refuse to buy a 1984 doorbell. But if half your neighborhood does, you are swept up in the surveillance dragnet, no matter how enlightened an individual you are. And if you try to do something about it and start destroying your neighbors' doorbells, you end up in the slammer.
The government is needed to protect people when they can't protect themselves anymore - at least as long as the government isn't as nefarious as the corporations it's supposed to protect the citizens from, which is debatable in the US.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Sunday November 24 2019, @04:34PM
Your freedom ends where mine begins.
My freedom ends where yours begins.
I wouldn't go around violating natural laws of others if I did not want my property vandalized.
Same applies to their 5g tower, or if they want to beam a kw of microwaves through my bedroom.
The actual boston tea party worked, and anyone who thinks this type of activism is somehow the big evil problem here is not really an american, regardless what they have tacked onto their lapel.