Gazette-Mail editorial: It ain't about the dogs

The ad was for the smart doorbell company Ring, owned by Amazon, and featured Ring doorcams tracking a lost dog using artificial intelligence facial-recognition software through a new feature called "Search Party." The idea — at least the one the ad is trying to sell — is that putting up flyers is a thing of the past, and now with doorbell cameras and recognition software that links camera systems together, one's lost pet could be easily tracked and returned to its loving owner. 

First off, as more than one observer pointed out, putting up flyers for a lost pet on a utility pole is already outdated. People post pictures of missing pets on social media. Dogs and cats have microchips and even, in some cases, GPS locators that can help owners find them. 

Factor in the current political environment in America, and most everyone immediately saw this for what it was: a thinly veiled pitch for software that could be used by the government and law enforcement to track and spy on people. Indeed, calling the ad "thinly veiled" might be giving it too much credit. 

The backlash was immediate. Viewers almost universally saw the ad as creepy and dystopian, especially in a time when immigration officials are seizing people off the streets with no due process under the pretense of nabbing people in the U.S. illegally. Federal immigration agents without name badges and faces covered have just as often detained U.S. citizens, shooting and killing two of them in Minneapolis in January. 

Even We Rate Dogs, a social media account that normally is devoted solely to adorable photos and videos of canines, issued a statement about the commercial, claiming it uses dogs to "manufacture consent for mass surveillance." 

"Neither Ring's products nor business model are built around finding lost pets," founder Matt Nelson said in a video posted to X, Instagram and Facebook. "But rather creating a lucrative, mass surveillance network by turning private homes into surveillance outposts and well-meaning neighbors into informants for ICE and other government agencies." 

Nelson and multiple media outlets pointed out that Ring had a partnership with Flock Safety, a police surveillance technology company. Oddly enough, Ring announced that it had ended the partnership around the same time it was receiving backlash over the Super Bowl ad. 

For its part, Ring has stated that ending the deal with Flock Safety was a mutual decision and had nothing to do with the Super Bowl ad or the "Search Party" feature. Going even further, company officials said Ring and Flock never actually shared any footage.   

That explanation smells a bit like a dog's mess. Keep an eye on Ring, because Ring is certainly keeping an eye on you.