Slashdot Mirror
Amazon's Home Security Company Is Turning Everyone Into Cops (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Neighbors is not just a social media app: it's a service that's meant to be used with Ring security cameras, a Wi-Fi-powered home security company that was acquired by Amazon last February in a $1 billion deal. Neighbors was launched in May 2018, three months after the acquisition. If you have Ring security cameras, you can upload video content straight from your security camera to Neighbors. [...] Beyond creating a "new neighborhood watch," Amazon and Ring are normalizing the use of video surveillance and pitting neighbors against each other. Chris Gilliard, a professor of English at Macomb Community College who studies institutional tech policy, told Motherboard in a phone call that such a "crime and safety" focused platforms can actively reinforces racism.
In Amazon's version of a "new neighborhood watch," petty crimes are policed heavily, and racism is common. Video posts on Neighbors disproportionately depict people of color, and descriptions often use racist language or make racist assumptions about the people shown. In many ways, the Neighbors/Ring ecosystem is like a virtual gated community: people can opt themselves in by downloading the Neighbors app, and with a Ring camera, users can frame neighbors as a threat. Motherboard individually reviewed more than 100 user-submitted posts in the Neighbors app between December 6 and February 5, and the majority of people reported as "suspicious" were people of color. Motherboard placed the "home" address at the VICE offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and kept the default 5-mile neighborhood radius, meaning the neighborhood encompassed all of lower Manhattan, most of Brooklyn, and parts of Queens and Hoboken. According to the Ring Community Guidelines, the Neighbors app bans "direct threats against any individuals, bullying, harassment, and any posts that demean, defame, or discriminate," but it relies on Neighbors users to report posts that violate that rule. The guidelines also claim that only "crime and safety related content" is allowed. The guidelines do not define what qualifies as "safety," but they do encourage users to "consider the behavior that made you suspicious and whether such suspicion is reasonable."
When asked if Ring moderates content on Neighbors or reviews posts for racism, a company spokesperson said, "The Neighbors app by Ring is meant to facilitate this collaboration within communities by allowing users to easily share and communicate with their neighbors and in some cases, local law enforcement, about crime and safety in real-time."
In Amazon's version of a "new neighborhood watch," petty crimes are policed heavily, and racism is common. Video posts on Neighbors disproportionately depict people of color, and descriptions often use racist language or make racist assumptions about the people shown. In many ways, the Neighbors/Ring ecosystem is like a virtual gated community: people can opt themselves in by downloading the Neighbors app, and with a Ring camera, users can frame neighbors as a threat. Motherboard individually reviewed more than 100 user-submitted posts in the Neighbors app between December 6 and February 5, and the majority of people reported as "suspicious" were people of color. Motherboard placed the "home" address at the VICE offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and kept the default 5-mile neighborhood radius, meaning the neighborhood encompassed all of lower Manhattan, most of Brooklyn, and parts of Queens and Hoboken. According to the Ring Community Guidelines, the Neighbors app bans "direct threats against any individuals, bullying, harassment, and any posts that demean, defame, or discriminate," but it relies on Neighbors users to report posts that violate that rule. The guidelines also claim that only "crime and safety related content" is allowed. The guidelines do not define what qualifies as "safety," but they do encourage users to "consider the behavior that made you suspicious and whether such suspicion is reasonable."
When asked if Ring moderates content on Neighbors or reviews posts for racism, a company spokesperson said, "The Neighbors app by Ring is meant to facilitate this collaboration within communities by allowing users to easily share and communicate with their neighbors and in some cases, local law enforcement, about crime and safety in real-time."
Motherboard said it was racist, that settles it, and I believe them without question.
I read the entire (badly written) article and I don't understand what the complaint is. They didn't even give examples of people using racist comments? Example: "One post on Neighbors' “Watchlist,” which is hand-selected by Ring employees and appears at the top of the app, shows a black man stealing a package from a door step. Neighbor41 wrote, “Hope they put his ass in rikers, share a room with 50 other criminals. Oh, and one toilet.” A reply from Neighbor64 implied that he hopes the person gets raped."
Um, ok? Is it racist because of his skin color? Millennials are confusing.
>"Motherboard individually reviewed more than 100 user-submitted posts in the Neighbors app between December 6 and February 5, and the majority of people reported as "suspicious" were people of color."
That is not evidence of "racism" as claimed by the article. It is mostly prejudice based on actual observed experience. Most would not deny that racism exists in society, but now so much of what is reported as "racism" is not. So much so that the word is starting to lose all meaning. "People of color" *do* commit vastly more crime per capita. That is absolute fact. Being more wary or suspicious might not seem fair, but it is not illogical, irrational, immoral, or racist.
Men commit far, far, far more crime than women. Being more wary of strange men checking out your house is not sexist. Again, it is justified prejudice.
I would absolutely expect such reporting by "Vice".
Why do people associate crime with skin color? Isn't that racist? I associate crime with CRIME. That is what matters, that the criminal is caught and punished. I don't care what color the criminal is. In my area that is almost always white as if you cared.
Corporatism != Free Market
Go banana!
Racism exists because black people commit basically all the crime. If they stopped then people would complain about mexicans instead.
I'm as racist as the next person, but poor people commit basically all the crime. Keeping minorities in poverty through through subjective (nowadays virtually silent) bias, merely ensures they will live up to the stereotype you have carved out for them.
This is somewhat different from profiling, which is an often individually observed behavior based on probability. LEOs looking for drug mules pull over vehicles piloted by young male hispanic & black occupants with far more frequency than vehicles piloted by blue haired older ladies.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
such a "crime and safety" focused platforms can actively reinforces racism.
That's unpossible!
It's also bullshit.
"Motherboard individually reviewed more than 100 user-submitted posts in the Neighbors app between December 6 and February 5, and the majority of people reported as "suspicious" were people of color. "
In New York City (where they found this example of "racism") non-whites are responsible for 93% of all murders and 80% of all robberies. People have very good reason to be suspicious of "people of color".
Keep up the good work, VICE, and don't let facts get in the way of trying to make everything into a problem of "racism".
Well, if my home security camera catches a black person trying to break into my house, then yes, a black person will be blamed.
Racism exists because black people commit basically all the crime. If they stopped then people would complain about mexicans instead.
Right. THAT'S the reason racism exists. It never existed before blacks committed crimes. There was no trying to prevent blacks from getting an education, no attempts to prevent them voting, no attempts at letting them live wherever they wanted. There wasn't even any slavery. All those black people volunteered to work on the plantations with little to no pay.
Here's a question: which group commits the largest amount of mass shootings, by far, than any other group? How about child molestation?
It's also a vicious cycle. Poor people do crime because ... they're poor? or because they're criminals? and then the system puts them in jail and that keeps them poor because they're poor? or because they're criminals?
America is the greatest example of how poor people can become very rich through hard work and honesty. There is massive economic mobility, regardless of your race, the largest predictor of success being 1) whether you have both parents at the home, 2) how hard you're willing to work and 3) whether or not your parents are criminals.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
It's racists to notice facts. You're like a literal Nazi.
While in a predominantly white neighborhood, being any color other than white is going to instantly make you a person of interest.
( Like it or not )
The same is true for a white tourist in Mexico, a group of teens roaming around a neighborhood at 3am or a white guy walking through South Central LA.
Hell, if I spot a vehicle on my street I don't recognize, they get my full attention until I know what they're doing here.
It isn't racism.
It's simply realizing something is out of place. ( Which, by default, SHOULD warrant some extra attention on your part. )
I watch my neighborhood at night through a night vision scope. So everyone looks green.
Have gnu, will travel.
Going AC for this post for reasons...
There are of course shades (inappropriate pun intended) of racism. On one extreme there are the genocidal racists. Then you have those who just make assumptions based on race.
I've been guilty of this when I was younger. My exposure to black people consisted of 4 people, 2 students in my class and our maid and our lawn guy. They were hard-working and the students were intelligent, but I viewed these 4 examples of black people as exceptions, which I have now come to believe was wrong.
Since then I have met many more people of all races and I've seen examples of hard-working, intelligent humans and I've also seen those who I would consider the scum of the earth. I don't see a whole lot of correlation to so-called "race".
And you also have to take into account socio-economic factors. When everyone expects you to be a criminal, lazy or stupid one might tend to live down to those expectations. If black Americans seem less educated, it might have something to do with the shitty schools we send them to. If Asian people seem smarter, it just may be that only the privileged and/or smart ones get to come over, at least for the most part.
I've been slumming around the Fox News comments section way too much lately and the racism is so blatant I can't believe no one calls them out for it.
When Jayme Closs escaped her kidnapper, it took nearly a day for the cops to release the name and picture of her assailant. During that time the big question on 90% of the commenters minds was whether he was black or an illegal immigrant or Mexican.
Oops, he was white.
And when 4 cops were shot executing a warrant in Houston the same thing happened. They said the reason they haven't announced the suspect's names or pictures was obviously because they were black or Mexican (which is of course a term they use for anyone with a Spanish-sounding name, even people from Italy). And again all they could agree on is it had to be one or the other.
Of course the reason the names were not immediately released is because 4 cops had just been shot and they were trying to investigate everything and figure out just exactly happened while 4 of them who were there were lying in the hospital.
And once again the suspects were white.
I'm white and I'm sick of racists. Can you imagine how black people feel?
-----
Oh, and remember last year when Trump said it's "a very scary time for young men in America"?
Did everyone forget how Trump reacted to the Central Park Five?
To summarize a woman was brutally assaulted in 1989 and 4 blacks and one Hispanic were convicted despite very shaky evidence. Trump took out full page ads before the trial proclaiming them guilty and calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty.
Based on DNA evidence and a confession from someone else their sentences were vacated in 2002 and yet Trump still kept proclaiming their guilt as recently as 2016.
What he REALLY meant was "It's a scary time for WHITE males who might actually have to suffer the same kind of injustices that we've put minorities through for all of our history. MAGA!!!!!"
I think it's a myth that anyone can become "very rich" although by 3rd world standards even I could be considered "very rich". Granted, I started off being born to parents of at least above average wealth.
I recognize that I could have been richer if I had made different choices in life, but I once turned down 2 job offers that paid more money to take a job that I thought I would like more and I still think that was the right decision. But maybe that was a failure on my part for not negotiating harder.
Of course, it's not just that. I could have studied harder in school but there are only so many "very rich" slots available. If everyone becomes "very rich" because it's possible then being "very rich" becomes "middle class".
But in a way, the average American is very rich not only compared to many other (not all) people, but also compared to our great grandparents....
To get "very rich" though sometimes doesn't require hard work or honesty at all. In fact, dishonesty seems to pay off quite nicely for some people. And hard work and honesty are no guarantee of becoming rich, let alone "very rich" compared to other Americans.
Actually, the best single predictor of wealth in the U.S. is the wealth of your parents. There's a lot of people doing back breaking labor for minimum wage and a few people putting in a "hard day" at the golf course for millions a year (and I don't mean pro golfers who may actually have to work at it).
In most rags to riches stories, the rags turn out to be Gucci.
It's a gross oversimplification. First, nobody keeps black people in the US in poverty, secondly Youtube is full of channels of new immigrants who came to the US from the worst shit countries with 500 bucks and no education, a much worse start than being born in the worst US ghetto. One guy from Uzbekistan with no education won the diversity green card lottery, came to NYC with no money, on the third day he was already working a construction job, a year later he brought in his wife and little daughter and they are living in an OK neighborhood and paying off a new family car. As the guy below said, the problem is poor cultural attitude towards hard work and education.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
shitty "fathers" who don't support their kids
It's hard to support a kid when you're in prison for being black, or in prison for being a man.
Prosecute and sentence black men the same as white women that do the same crimes and you'll suddenly find far fewer fatherless black households.
Keeping black people in poverty is enormously profitable and there are plenty of examples, from the abuse of the criminal justice system (example: people fined more than they can possibly afford for minor offenses like minor traffic violations, then imprisoned for not paying the fines, guaranteeing they can't continue), to the selling of subprime/variable rate mortgages to black people and refusing to even offer regular mortgages even if they're eligible.
Let's also not forget the defunding of public education in predominantly black areas.
Making that claim shows a chronic ignorance of what's going on around you. I'm not even sure why you'd make that claim without at least doing the research and finding out why community leaders and anti-racist and anti-poverty groups say otherwise.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.