Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Clouds and Spying

The climate today was just delightful.  We were up and out on the bikes, now that the hideous garage painting project is done.  The clouds were glorious.


By now, most people know that Savannah Guthrie's Mom has been kidnapped.  The Pima County Sheriff did their usual inept job by allowing people back into her house, before FBI forensics had been there, and the entire crime scene was compromised.  Anyway, footage from a door bell camera has been recovered.  What is interesting is that there was no subscription for the camera.  However, it recorded anyway.  When you subscribe, you're being allowed to look at that footage, the FBI can get it anyway.  Additionally, we have learned that the FBI can can retrieve footage from any camera at your house at any time even if they were not set to record and even if you do not have a subscription.  So, don't think those cameras in the house aren't recording, even if you let the subscription lapse, they are.  

Ring, a major purveyor of door bell cameras ran a commercial during the Super Bowl.  In this commercial, they told us they are building a surveillance network.  This is an excerpt from a paywalled article.

At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Ring advertised “Search Party,” a cute, horrifyingly dystopian feature nominally designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses AI to look for a lost dog: “One post of a dog’s photo in the Ring app starts outdoor cameras looking for a match,” Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said in the Super Bowl commercial. “Search Party from Ring uses AI to help families find lost dogs.” Onscreen, an AI-powered box forms around a missing dog: “Milo Match,” it says. “Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family. Be a hero in your neighborhood with Search Party. Available to everyone for free right now.”
Although Ring says they don't use human biometrics, they do give police access to Ring data.  It's only a matter of time before we're all surveilled all the time.  China  already does this.  Having a cell phone is bad enough in terms of being spied on, but this is a next level.  We don't have Ring, or Alexa, or any of those spy devices.  Here is a free article.

There is more, so much more, but I'm just not up to talking about that man.


6 comments:

  1. I wonder if that poor lady is still alive. It would be awful wondering what's happening to your mother.

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  2. Ineptness of law enforcement agencies appears to be a feature these days. I do hope the poor woman is returned to her family alive.
    My daughter has set up a doorbell camera - not sure about the brand, but I will be talking to her about this.

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  3. I must say, the Ring surveillance doesn't freak me out that much. We're always under surveillance here in London. There's CCTV everywhere. I just assume if I'm out and about, I'm on camera, and that's fine. I hope the authorities find the Guthrie mom, but it seems less likely with every passing day. I suspect they will eventually solve this crime, though.

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  4. I find surveillance cameras are a reality today. I do not particularly like being watched and/or tracked all the time. It is invasive. That said, if I'm doing nothing wrong, what does it matter.
    Kidnapping an 84-year-old woman is cruel. I hope for her return to the family.

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    1. I think that where it becomes an issue is that not all people are good people. This footage can be edited and turned into something else altogether.

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  5. I don't use any of those Spy devices on purpose but I do find it creepy that my Phone listens and algorithm feeds show up for whatever you've been talking about. Big Brother is indeed Watching and Listening. Very dystopian... and George Orwell wasn't Wrong.

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