The deployment of the Ring Always Home Cam scheduled for 2021 has stirred up new discussion over the potential for invasive monitoring and breach of privacy. However, some advocates voice fears about the system — part of a family of home monitoring technologies marketed by Ring that has been scrutinised for its ties to law enforcement. As more customers adopt devices that listen and see inside the home, John Verdi, vice president of strategy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington think tank, said the introduction may lead to a “normalisation of surveillance” in everyday life. “In private spaces such as living rooms and bedrooms, where cameras and microphones and other instruments are deployed, this contributes to the recognition of daily surveillance,” Verdi said. Ryan Calo, a law professor and privacy researcher at the University of Washington, observed that even the sense of being monitored can make people alter actions. “You feel like there is a social agent in your midst” for some sort of electronic surveillance, Calo said. “A camera like this will make people feel watched, compromising one of the only remaining privacy opportunities.” Calo said that by encouraging someone to track other people without their permission, the flying cam “could be incrementally more dangerous than a normal camera.” “While it is advertised as a home product, Calo has said it could be used in an office and” requires everyone to check in on the person who operates it — and there is no where to hide. This may encourage, for instance, an abusive person to track a girlfriend. — Felt secure or under threat? —
