Amazon Ring

In 2019, Caroline Haskins did a great investigation into what Ring cameras do to communities, and effectively identified how they rely on fear: people need to be scared of their surroundings, and the cameras show them things they didn’t know was happening before, making them even more suspicious.

She linked Ring to the politics of suburbia, noting it’s “not only a destination of white flight, but a refuge.” People of color are seen as the least trustworthy, fueling racism in neighborhood watch apps. Beyond that, Amazon’s Neighbors is advertised as “digital neighborhood watch” — eerily similar to Labour’s slogan — but Haskins says it really creates “a digital gated community.”

– Amazon is always watching