Ring Doorbell blasted for 'creepy' Super Bowl commercial as it introduces controversial new feature
Many Super Bowl viewers were left stunned by Ring's announcement of its new Search Party feature.
Their advert featured Jamie Siminoff, the founder of Ring, showing off a new feature that 'uses AI to help families find lost dogs'.
"Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family," he claimed.
The feature, previously limited to Ring subscribers with cameras, now allows anyone to receive notifications when their camera detects a lost dog reported on the platform.
Advert
It essentially turns your doorbell camera into a surveillance system that tracks the front of any house it’s installed on.
Siminoff added that it is 'available to everyone for free right now' in the US.
"Before Search Party, the best you could do was drive up and down the neighborhood, shouting your dog's name in hopes of finding them,” he added.
“Now, pet owners can mobilise the whole community—and communities are empowered to help—to find lost pets more effectively than ever before.
“That’s why we believe it’s so important to make this feature available to anyone who shares a lost dog post in Neighbors.”
However, many viewers claimed that the developing technology could, one day, also be used to 'spy on humans'.
"Y’all, this Ring Doorbell Camera commercial was creepy as can be," one person tweeted.
"They are not even hiding it anymore."
"Did anyone else think that @ring commercial was really weird," a second penned. "Using your doorbell footage to locate dogs, but now imagine it wasnt dogs they were using your doorbells footage for."
Another added: "Ring Camera introducing Search Party. AI video surveillance of your neighborhood. Constantly, everyday, always watching. You can’t not hide or escape."
"Ring offering to turn your neighborhood into an AI fueled surveillance state under the guise of 'helping you find your lost dog' is CRAZY," a third said.
Some were not so mad about the feature, as a fourth called it 'the best most meaningful #SuperBowl commercial thus far in my opinion was the @ring'.
"Search Party technology for missing pets. Thinking outside the box to unite pets & families. And it's FREE. Bravo Ring!!!" they wrote.
"The @ring doorbell search cam for dogs is the best commercial of the night," someone else said.
Ring has invested $1 million to assist more than 4,000 shelters in Search Party for dogs to help reunite more lost dogs with their families and achieve the shared goal of reducing the time dogs spend in shelters in the US.
"Anyone in the US can now start a Search Party in the Ring app to help find their missing dog, whether they own Ring cameras or not," Ring told LADbible. "When a neighbor reports a lost dog in the Ring app, nearby participating outdoor Ring cameras automatically begin looking for potential matches. Using AI-powered computer vision, these cameras look for dogs that resemble the one reported missing, alerting the camera owner if it detects a potential match. The camera owner can see a photo of the missing dog alongside their own camera footage and choose to share the information with the neighbor searching for their pet or ignore the alert.
"Camera owners choose on a case-by-case basis whether they want to share videos with a pet owner, protecting users’ privacy while also giving them the power to be a neighborhood hero. With Ring’s Search Party, your privacy is always in your control. You can ignore the alert or choose to share the info with your neighbor in need. Since its launch, the AI-powered Search Party feature has helped reunite more than one lost dog a day with their owners."
Topics: Dogs, Super Bowl, AI
Anish Vij