Great Job, Internet!: WeRateDogs breaks down Ring's consent-manufacturing Super Bowl commercial

“Neither Ring’s products nor business model are built around finding lost pets, but rather creating a lucrative mass surveillance network by turning private homes into surveillance outposts, and well-meaning neighbors into informants for ICE and other government agencies,” says WeRateDogs’ Matt Nelson in a clip posted to Bluesky. “Ring has stated that it does not have a partnership with ICE. They do however have a partnership with Flock Safety, a private surveillance firm and license plate tracking system that provides data, including Ring footage, to law enforcement agencies through a warrantless and anonymous community request service, which is then turned over to ICE, the FBI, and even the Navy.” Nelson then goes on to cite a report from 404 Media, published in May, demonstrating how ICE has already been using this data. Another instance showed a Texas police department warrantlessly searching 83,000 cameras to look for a woman who had an abortion. 

As the video also points out, it’s not even particularly good at finding dogs. The commercial claims to find one lost dog per day, which accounts for 0.03% of the lost dog reports filed to Ring annually. “If you are genuinely concerned about keeping your pets safe and maximizing your chances of finding them if they’re lost, get them microchipped,” the video concludes. “You can do this at any vet and even some shelters. Just make sure you register it with up to date info.” And maybe keep that info out of the hands of Ring.