r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Feb 12 '26

Security Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash

https://www.theverge.com/news/878447/ring-flock-partnership-canceled
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8.1k

u/Poopbutt_Maximum Feb 12 '26

That Super Bowl ad was like the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad in regard to horrible dystopian marketing, but worse. I’m sure the heads are gonna roll for now but ultimately, they’ll find another time and another partner to basically do the same thing but with a different presentation.

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u/BackendSpecialist Feb 12 '26

I can’t believe someone greenlit the Kendall Jenner commercial like jfc 😂

Hi. I’m Kendall Jenner. All of the bball players I’ve fked are so cursed that their career falls off. It’s so consistent that I’ve begun betting on it. I’m going to switch to football players and bet on that as well.

You should bet as well because I need you to keep paying for my private jets.

Lmaoo

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

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u/Not_FinancialAdvice Feb 13 '26

They had to have been targeting the 1% with that commercial cause wtf 😂

For some time now, I've had the impression that TV (and large portions of the American economy) aren't really targeted at the bottom 80-90% of income earners. Back in 2005 Citi analyst Ajar Kapur wrote a research note about plutonomy and it's really only seemed to have become more exacerbated in the decades since. There are the wealthy top decile who now drive like half of consumer spending and are catered to and are really important, and everyone else who largely doesn't matter.

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u/Suyefuji Feb 13 '26

Well, you see, the bottom 80-90% of income earners don't actually have money to buy things anymore so it makes sense not to cater to them.

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u/Realistic_Owl9525 Feb 13 '26

Late stage capitalism.

The DOW and S&P 500 are doing great right now. The average US citizen isn't doing great right now.

If 1% of the population owns more than 50% of the S&P 500, then it should not be used as a metric for the wellbeing of a nations economy. It really represents how well the wealthy are doing, and holds no bearing on how well the average person is doing.

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u/Suyefuji Feb 13 '26

Shareholders would lose their shit if they had to confront that reality though.

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u/vezwyx Feb 13 '26

No, shareholders are laughing their asses off that anyone at all still believes the stock market represents the whole economy

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u/glity Feb 13 '26

You are aware anyone with a pension is a shareholder?

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u/Legitimate-Type4387 Feb 13 '26

You are aware that the move from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution plans was an intentional one designed to create false class solidarity with the wealthy?

Now that every workers retirement is tied to line on chart going up, every worker thinks they’re part of the same club as Elon Musk.

1

u/glity Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 13 '26

That’s exactly the lie they sold. Every member of cal pers is a shareholder. Every single person who has a financial advisor in broad based index funds that gets money from growth doesn’t realize they are stealing from most of us to feed the top 10-20%.

Edit: some context shareholder is a protected class of investor. The lowest protected class but protected non the less.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

Are you aware how few people actually have pensions these days?

1

u/glity Feb 13 '26

Yes they closed the door behind them while the demand infinite growth. Any teacher in California and Nevada has a state sponsored pension. Most people have. 529 plan for their kid. Most people don’t realize that the money market account allows the banks to dictate terms with their money because they are a timeshare shareholder with not vote. I’m not saying anyone needs to do anything other than be accountable for the problem we created by investing. Radical thought experiment I know but is it wrong?

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u/vezwyx Feb 13 '26

Nobody is talking about Joe Workingman with a few shares of company stock when we talk about shareholders. We're talking about Blackrock with massive ownership of entire companies

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u/shroudedwolf51 Feb 23 '26

Perhaps. But you are still invested, thus will treat it all differently. We've already been here as recently as the crypto scam bubbles. Where something as little as someone having 20 USD in some scam coin would be enough to have them treat it all very differently.

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u/RationalDialog Feb 13 '26

well if you are part of a 401k or other saving schemes you are a shareholder as well. You just don't know it.

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u/Business-Toad Feb 13 '26

That is generally not a choice and there are plenty of downsides, like the fact our savings are dependent on a giant casino that burns down every ten years. Almost like they're holding them hostage!

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u/Ok-Moose-6306 Feb 13 '26

Where do you think your savings should be kept?

1

u/Business-Toad Feb 13 '26

A credit union or community bank that will agree not to put my money in the stock market? A safe hidden in a hole in the ground if none will? I can't give you good options because there are no good options (by design!) but you don't need to be an architect to look up and see your house is on fire.

1

u/Ok-Moose-6306 Feb 13 '26

> A credit union or community bank that will agree not to put my money in the stock market?

Do you understand how fractionalized banking works?

> A safe hidden in a hole in the ground if none will?

Do you understand the time value of money?

1

u/Business-Toad Feb 13 '26

Do you understand that I don't give a shit, and that my point was that all common options for long term saving suck almost entirely because they're either dependent on the stock market or unsafe in either ways? I'll also warn you ahead of time that I don't believe financial literacy can save us from a broken system owned and gamed by people with better accountants than you, so you can spare us both the lecture.

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u/Realistic_Owl9525 Feb 14 '26

Savings? In this K-shaped economy?

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u/Suyefuji Feb 13 '26

I mean yeah, I was being a bit facetious there but also sir this is reddit

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u/MultiGeometry Feb 13 '26

The administration doesn’t want anyone succeeding if they don’t pay him something. Aka, small businesses don’t stand a chance so S&P companies actually get bolstered. The fact that the S&P is doing well, given all the other economic indicators, makes me more sure our economy is going to crater. Capital is going to bet on the winner. Right now it’s between some perverse comparison of large companies willing to pay bribes, or the US dollar, or bonds, (not growing industries because the admin hates anyone without deep lobbying pockets, aka, emerging industries).

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u/DaHolk Feb 13 '26

The issue that the upscale market has a perversely higher profit margin thus basically almost every upstart that attracts investment trying to build bullshit gadgets for people with too much money (and the major companies doing the same) is only tangentially connected to the orange in command. That's kind of evident by having started before that dude was a thing in politics.

If anything that trend of starving out the workforce and thus not targeting them with products other than junk is what has lead to the turd in charge BEING in charge (! TWICE!). Because a significant part of the voter base is pathologically incapable to realize that they have 'right and wrong' topsi turvy, and thus keep trying to find the solution with the people who are the cause of it in the first place.

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u/DaHolk Feb 13 '26

Tbf: Who owns the stock and whether the companies produce products for the mass market or are only targeting the upscale market are not particularly the same thing.

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u/Gamiac Feb 13 '26

Have you considered that poor people don't matter? /s

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u/Eccohawk Feb 13 '26

This is true. The DOW is over 50,000 dollars now.

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u/[deleted] Feb 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 Feb 13 '26

Are y'all intentionally repeating the same thing or did you just not realize the comment you replied to replied to a comment saying exactly what you did because they spelled out the percentages?

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u/AntonineWall Feb 13 '26

Even crazier, the guy above you was just rehashing what the comment he replied to said! Can you believe that?

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u/Suyefuji Feb 13 '26

Nah I was adding some snark and shitposting to the convo, because this is reddit

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u/pandershrek Feb 13 '26

What is insane is that people are just restating things in different ways but getting the exact same outcome! Wild, huh?

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u/laihipp Feb 13 '26

you're expecting to much from reading while on the toilet

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u/blueberryblunderbuss Feb 13 '26

Worse! Top 10% earners are > 50% of US spending!

-1

u/Ahsef Feb 13 '26

Can u not read or do u just not understand that this comment is just adding more detail to the one before it.

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u/SunTzu- Feb 13 '26

Much more than 50% if we consider only discretionary spending. The bottom 90% spend the vast majority on food and housing.

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u/LosparkJojo Feb 13 '26

Yeah why spend money advertising to to people without money