this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026

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Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs (www.404media.co)

submitted 1 week ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/technology@lemmy.world

88 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ring’s controversial, AI-powered “Search Party” feature isn’t intended to always be limited only to dogs, the company’s founder, Jamie Siminoff, told Ring employees in an internal email obtained by 404 Media.

In October, Ring launched Search Party, an on-by-default feature that links together Ring cameras in a neighborhood and uses AI to search for specific lost dogs, essentially creating a networked, automated surveillance system. The feature got some attention at the time, but faced extreme backlash after Ring and Siminoff promoted Search Party during a Super Bowl ad. 404 Media obtained an email that Siminoff sent to all Ring employees in early October, soon after the feature’s launch, which said the feature was introduced “first for finding dogs,” but that it or features like it would be expanded to “zero out crime in neighborhoods.”

“This is by far the most innovation that we have launched in the history of Ring. And it is not only the quantity, but quality,” Siminoff wrote. “I believe that the foundation we created with Search Party, first for finding dogs, will end up becoming one of the most important pieces of tech and innovation to truly unlock the impact of our mission. You can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods. So many things to do to get there but for the first time ever we have the chance to fully complete what we started.”

Archive: http://archive.today/xKxOd

(page 2) 39 comments

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[–] XLE@piefed.social 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Between Ring and Jeffrey Epstein, it's surprising how explicit criminals are about their criminal intentions.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When a criminals moves into the palace, the nation changes into mob turf.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 1 week ago

The western gangster king. The eastern gangster king being putin.

[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

[–] homes@piefed.world 26 points 1 week ago

They lied?!

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

No shit

[–] Somecall_metim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

[–] Red_October@piefed.world 16 points 1 week ago

Yeah, we all saw that coming and it's exactly why everyone's freaking out about it.

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 week ago

c/noshitsherlock

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

FYI -

Ring and Alexa are Amazon
Nest is Google

[–] KirbyBoi66@lemmy.org 12 points 1 week ago

Boycott ring

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Wait… what?!

They mean to cats too, right?!?

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

Oh, thank god, I was worried if there might not be a worldwide surveillance dragnet for in case I lost a pet iguana.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Fucking scumbags.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

No Duh?!

[–] U7826391786239@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago

the fucked up thing is the number of people who actually thought it was ever about "dogs"

[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Anyone remember "Police Blotter" reports in local papers? Some were funny.

Someone called in with concerns about a neighborhood cat that is "continuously at large."

But they mostly gave people a very dark view of the world outside. This led to metal bars on doors and windows, sale of pricey security systems, and folks walking around scared of their shadow. That all moved over to apps like NextDoor, Citizen, and Ring's Neighbors.

Fear is a primal driver. People on those apps are constantly reporting "odd looking people" in their neighborhood. Not surprisingly, the pet "Search Party" feature goes through Neighbors. Those same users are primed to see bad people everywhere. They will happily accept any feature that promises "zero crime neighborhoods."

ANY feature.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago

CREEE PEEEE!

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 6 points 1 week ago

And in other "no shit" headlines...

[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago

And they can ONLY Achieve this MONUMENTAL and IMPORTANT Task of Global Surveillance if we give THEM Tax Breaks! How EXCITING!

-American Politicians!

[–] ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

pikachu_face.jpg

[–] kn0wmad1c@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago

Sorry, I only have a YouTube link for this: https://youtu.be/ROFblZ_-9q4

If you haven't seen it, Wyse (Ring competitor) released a pretty funny ad about this.

[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

BOLO: Leftist dissenter. Apprehend at all costs.

Uploading to search party for facial match.......

[–] Steve@startrek.website 3 points 1 week ago

Duhhhhhhhhh

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah it's called tracking everything that's happening and feeding it to AI so AI can predict and alert the owners of whatever we they decided is important to know about and predict, like threats to their power and ambitions by the stupid masses who should just accept they're slaves.

[–] RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Birds?

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