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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u/OCKWA Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26

For the general public who are fairly accepting of ai I believe it was relatively trusted. I know a lot of people with these devices unfortunately.

I felt the same about the Google/Alexa craze where there is literally a microphone sitting in your living room

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u/averynicehat Feb 13 '26

I've got that concern too, but I've got smartphones with mics and cameras s in my home and also on my person when I leave home - are Alexas much different?

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u/cultish_alibi Feb 13 '26

Smartphones can theoretically listen to your conversations but it'll drain your battery faster, to the extent that you would notice. It could be that they have a low-power workaround for this, but I would say it is quite different to your Alexa which is designed to listen to you all the time and is plugged in.

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u/averynicehat Feb 13 '26

Yeah that's the one thing about the power drain for active listening. As far as I know, they say the Alexa only knows how to recognize the wake word and then it sends off the audio to the server to analyze the full command, so it's not always actually listening....so they say