In a commercial aired during this year’s Super Bowl, doorbell camera company Ring advertised its new “Search Party” function. The advertisement portrayed a family notifying Ring of a lost dog, prompting the company to search through its doorbell network’s footage and use AI to find the animal.
Ring’s surveillance “may be applied to puppies today, but where else could it go?” warned the American Civil Liberties Union.
Following a privacy-conscious backlash to the commercial, Ring owner Amazon announced that it was canceling a planned partnership with Flock Safety, a police surveillance technology company.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline “Photo: Calling Off the Search Party.”
