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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Magazine article
Amazon’s Ring wanted to track your pets. It revealed the future of surveillance
The Conversation, Vol.17 February 2026
2026
Appears in The Conversation
Abstract
As a career counterintelligence officer for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Defense Intelligence Agency, I worked inside a fully integrated intelligence system.
Signals intelligence from the National Security Agency guided investigations. Satellite imagery from the National Reconnaissance Office provided visibility into hostile environments. Human intelligence came through Defense Intelligence Agency channels.
These streams were strengthened by reporting from domestic and foreign partners. It was a closed, tightly controlled system.
But things have changed. Now private companies are supplying “intelligence as a service” to government entities and others – and as the Amazon-owned Ring doorbell camera company found out when it advertised a new feature last week, the change is not without controversy.
Details
- Title
- Amazon’s Ring wanted to track your pets. It revealed the future of surveillance
- Authors
- Dennis Desmond - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- The Conversation, Vol.17 February 2026
- Publisher
- Conversation Media Group
- Date published
- 2026
- DOI
- 10.64628/AA.c5kdat55f
- ISSN
- 2201-5639
- Copyright note
- © The Conversation Media Group. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991209780702621
- Output Type
- Magazine article
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