Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest helped normalize American surveillance and turned us into a nation of voyeurs

For all the worries about hacking, owners of Internet-connected cameras say they love watching people silently from afar — often their own family members

Margaret Cuda thought her Ring doorbell camera was “the best thing since sliced bread.” She loved watching the world pass by through her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, guarding vigilantly for suspicious strangers and porch pirates from the comfort of her phone.

She hadn’t expected the camera also might capture awkward moments closer to home, like the time it caught her daughter grabbing a beer and talking about how controlling her mother was. “I never told her about that one,” she said with a laugh.

Amazon’s Ring, Google’s Nest and other Internet-connected cameras — some selling for as little as $59 — have given Americans the tools they need to become a personal security force, and millions of people now seeing what’s happening around their home every second — what Ring calls the “new neighborhood watch.”  (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post).

Source:

Article submitted by, dewater.