gizmodo.com,
Fri 09/30:
Amazon Makes Creepy Surveillance Robot Even Creepier With Yet More Ring Integration
Ever since Amazon launched Astro—its stout, doe-eyed, autonomously mobile domestic robot—its been a curious sight to behold. All of us, however, were basically left wondering what the point of the whole thing was. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced a host of new product updates, including new features for Astro. The idea is to integrate the surveillance capabilities of Ring’s cameras and sensors with the autonomous investigative skills of Astro. Advertisement
In this piece, we’ll endeavor to explain the downsides to that, and why what Astro really provides is a big, fat, smiling privacy hazard. The Astro-Ring Integration, Explained
When Astro was launched, it already had a security component to it: Amazon designed the robot to pair with Ring Protect Pro accounts, which allows Astro to “autonomously patrol your home when you’re out,” and “proactively investigate when an event is detected” (an event being something bad, like a break-in). In other words, the company envisions small businesses that can’t afford a human guard deploying Amazon’s souped-up Roomba to protect themselves. If you want a domestic security guard, get a German shepherd. Advertisement
Amazon’s Plan to Turn Your Home Into a Surveillance Hub
Let’s face it: Astro isn’t going to keep you safe. Even the dumbest criminals are going to be able to outsmart it. The company offers controls that purport to moderate this data collection. And if you sign up for Amazon’s new Ring integration, the videos that you save via the robot or your cameras are also stored in the cloud. With the advent of Astro, the potential for an explosion of new kinds of such collection has only grown that much more invasive. With all that data accruing in one place, there is always the possibility of a cybersecurity incident.
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