Amazon engineer says Ring should be 'shut down immediately'

I won't claim to be very knowledgeable about ring, but I'd imagine that the difference comes down to Alexa's claim to only listen for its name, rather than sending all audio in range up to Amazon for processing (regardless of whether you trust that or not). Based on the Ring controversy, it seems all footage from the system is available to employees for ad hoc usage. Having the theoretical capability to listen isnt nearly as dystopian as the practical capability to watch.

Ring has 'partnered' and gives access to videos taken of you and your neighbors to police departments without a warrant, just ad hoc access. Amazon has also been working on a facial recognition program, and the combination has worry some implications if, or more likely when (if not contested by society at large or regulation), combined. If you opt-out of ring's sharing video, it reports you to the police with the exact repurcussions unknown to me (I have read a handful of articles on it previously). Here is a 'ring issues' outline from EFF: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/five-concerns-about-am...