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Ring's Pet Search: Privacy vs. Lost Pups
10 Feb
Summary
- Ring's Search Party feature uses AI to identify pets on cameras.
- The feature pools camera feeds to find lost animals.
- Users can disable the Search Party feature in the app settings.
Ring's Search Party feature, designed to help find lost pets, has raised significant privacy concerns among users. This feature utilizes AI on individual Ring devices to identify animals within their camera's view. Subsequently, all collected video feeds are aggregated, creating a network that could potentially track lost animals.
Launched previously, Search Party has reportedly found 99 lost dogs in 90 days, according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. However, critics point to this success rate as a fraction of the approximately ten million pets that go missing annually in America. Many users are hesitant to contribute to a widespread surveillance system, fearing the technology could be repurposed for tracking people.
Fortunately, disabling the feature is straightforward for concerned users. By navigating to the Ring app's Control Center, users can find and toggle off the Search Party settings for both lost pets and natural hazards. For those seeking further privacy, an option to delete all saved videos is also available within the app's history section.
