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Amazon’s smart-home products are built on stoking paranoia – Source fastcompany.com

The rapid-fire video presentation had a lot to take in, but through it all, there was one clear, recurring theme: Danger is everywhere; Amazon can make you safe again. Amazon’s vision for the smart home is an increasingly fearful one, in which intruders must be persistently fended off. Even previously innocent products like the Echo speaker now play a key role Amazon’s ever-expanding security push.

Sadly, it is a fitting vision for our current moment of fear and divisiveness.

Drones, alarms, and virtual barking dogs

The wildest announcement of the day, by far, came from Ring, the Amazon subsidiary best known for blanketing the country in doorbell cameras (and giving police departments convenient ways to obtain the footage). Next year, Ring will release a $250 autonomous security drone called the Ring Always Home, which will fly around inside your house to capture surveillance footage. The idea is to monitor for security or safety issues while you’re not home, even in places where…

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Source : fastcompany.com

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