Stasi State: Amazon "Ring" Doorbell Surveillance Wants To Create A Crime News Network

activistpost (69)in #technology • 6 years ago

Amazon is currently looking to hire someone with the title “Managing Editor, News" for its Ring doorbell surveillance hardware and software which wants to create a Stasi police state run by citizens themselves.

Activist Post has previously warned you that it’s not enough that Amazon is on record working with the FBI with its Facial Rekogntion biometric software … no, Amazon is also spying on customers of its recently purchased home surveillance cameras called "Ring."

The job description for Amazon Ring's "Managing Editor, News" is as follows, according to Amazon's website.

The Managing Editor, News will work on an exciting new opportunity within Ring to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking crime news alerts to our neighbors. This position is best suited for a candidate with experience and passion for journalism, crime reporting, and people management. Having a knack for engaging storytelling that packs a punch and a strong nose for useful content are core skills that are essential to the success of this role. The candidate should be eager to join a dynamic, new media news team that is rapidly evolving and growing week by week.

Responsibilities

· Manage quality assurance of all posted news alerts to ensure timeliness, efficiency, and accuracy
· Provide general assistance and oversight to the entire news team on an around-the-clock basis (standardized workflow, internal collaboration, and mentorship)
· Identify compelling and actionable new alert formats and test markets for pilot programs
· Work with product team to optimize CMS and provide solutions for necessary improvements
· Develop internal reports on news trends and relevant team statistics.

The job states it requires at least five years’ experience “in breaking news, crime reporting, and/or editorial operations” and three years in management. Preferred traits include “deep and nuanced knowledge of American crime trends,” “strong news judgment that allows for quick decisions in a breaking news environment,” and experience using “social media channels to gather breaking news.”

I don't have the experience needed, but I figured I would troll them -- or in the odd chance I get the job, I'll be posting internal documents to WikiLeaks.org using the TOR portal after wiping all the exif data of course!

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1123638040558276608

Remember when Activist Post told you that this would be used as a dragnet to report your neighbors? At this point, they are literally just creating George Orwell's 1984 or reinventing the Nazi Stasi.

Both of those are not good for our future and are worrying prospects, which is why many privacy advocate groups, attorneys, and even more recently Microsoft (which also markets its own facial recognition system) have all raised concerns over the technology. They all point to the obvious issues of consent, racial profiling, and the potential to use images gathered through facial recognition cameras as evidence of criminal guilt by law enforcement. But the bigger issue is one that Jay Stanley an attorney at ACLU highlighted a full-blown police state.

“We don’t want to live in a world where government bureaucrats can enter in your name into a database and get a record of where you’ve been and what your financial, political, sexual, and medical associations and activities are,” Jay Stanley, an attorney with ACLU, told BuzzFeed News about the use of facial recognition cameras in retail stores. “And we don’t want a world in which people are being stopped and hassled by authorities because they bear resemblance to some scary character.” (Source)

Amazon seems hell-bent on creating a surveillance network, whether it's through selling the FBI and law enforcement surveillance software like Amazon's Facial Rekognition technology now under fire by a government watchdog for its lack of privacy, or Amazon's Ring's neighborhood surveillance network.

Amazon employees who are against the company selling facial recognition technology to the government have protested the company’s decision. Over 20 groups of shareholders have sent several letters to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos urging him to stop selling the company’s face recognition software to law enforcement.

“We are concerned the technology would be used to unfairly and disproportionately target and surveil people of color, immigrants, and civil society organizations,” the shareholders, which reportedly include Social Equity Group and Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, wrote. “We are concerned sales may be expanded to foreign governments, including authoritarian regimes.”

Another letter was just sent in January 2019, organized by Open Mic, a nonprofit organization focused on corporate accountability, and was filed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood; both letters warned the technology poses “potential civil and human rights risks.”

Numerous civil rights organizations have also co-signed a letter demanding Amazon stop assisting government surveillance; and several members of Congress have expressed concerns about the partnerships.

Several lawmakers have even chimed in to voice concerns about Amazon’s facial recognition software, expressing worry that it could be misused, The Hill reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained hundreds of pages of documents showing Amazon offering the software to law enforcement agencies across the country.

In a 2018 report, the ACLU called Amazon’s facial recognition project a “threat to civil liberties.”

Amazon responded by essentially shrugging off the employees’ and shareholder concerns by the head of the company’s public sector cloud computing business, stating that the team is “unwaveringly” committed to the U.S. government.

“We are unwaveringly in support of our law enforcement, defense and intelligence community,” Teresa Carlson, vice president of the worldwide public sector for Amazon Web Services, said July 20th at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, FedScoop reported.

Amazon has since released an update claiming to have fixed all of the problems with lighting that caused inaccuracy to its systems according to the company.

Meanwhile, facial recognition technology is being pushed as a new means for an A.I. police state without human involvement — a frightening thought to say the least. Defense One reports that “AI-Enabled Cameras That Detect Crime Before it Occurs Will Soon Invade the Physical World” are in the works and on display at ISC West, a recent security technology conference in Las Vegas.

Activist Post has previously reported in its own way that the rise of facial recognition technology is inevitable and, as a result, the death of one’s privacy is sure to come with it.

This writer has focused on facial recognition technology. From Amazon helping law enforcement with its Facial Rekogntion software, DHS wanting to use it for border control, to the Olympics wanting to use the tech for security.

Even retail including Amazon is pushing for the technology as an anti-theft mechanism to be introduced in a number of stores using biometric facial recognition software to build a database of shoplifters, as Activist Post reported.

According to a recent survey from the Center for Data Innovation, only 1 in 4 Americans is at all concerned about government facial recognition tech, and that number is even lower when it specifically addresses law enforcement.

It's now been reported that facial recognition has evolved and researchers at the University of Bradford have found that "facial recognition technology works even when only half a face is visible," according to EurekAlert.

This author wonders if that number will increase when the technology is actually being used openly at retail stores and by law enforcement a world where governments bureaucrats can enter in your name and get a record of where you’ve been and what your financial, political, sexual and medical associations and activities are. That world is coming and you can thank big corporations like Amazon, who still don’t understand the type of society they are enabling; or maybe Bezos fully understands what he’s doing. After all, Jeff Bezos has a partnership deal with the CIA for $600 million worth of cloud servers. Maybe Bezos is secretly Dr. Evil petting his cat as his surveillance state comes to fruition, so he can rule and control the world through his technology? Amazon’s commitment to establishing a futuristic police state straight out of Strange Days and The Minority Report has to make you wonder.

By @An0nkn0wledge

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.

Image credit: Pixabay (modified)