One of the more unusual ads during the recent Super Bowl broadcast was advertising Ring Camera’s “Search Party” feature, which uses data from the cameras to help locate lost dogs.

A lost dog can be a dog owner’s worst nightmare. The concern is not just will the dog find their way home, but also fear that the dog will be hit by a car or possibly picked up by a stranger and never seen again.

So it would seem leveraging Ring doorbell cameras would be a welcome service. That’s what the founder of Ring (now owned by Amazon) thought when he created the service and promoted it on the Super Bowl.

But lo and behold, there’s been a backlash. People expressed concern about the lack of privacy in terms of Ring accessing their data. This was in spite of the fact that Ring camera owners would need to opt INTO the service—data would not be grabbed without owner permission.

Here’s the problem. The privacy ship sailed a long time ago. Today, for better or for worse, we have a wired and exposed society that connects us together. Video footage allowed us to catch the man who murdered the United Healthcare CEO, as well as the man who shot up Brown University and killed an MIT professor.

In the case of still-missing Nancy Guthrie, it’s video footage that’s given law enforcement the only substantive leads to help find her and the people who’ve abducted this 84-year-old woman.

We also have seen photos of people in compromising situations, like the rich and famous people cavorting with the late Jeffrey Epstein and the young women he was trafficking.

Video, like any technological resource, can be used for good and for bad. If you are afraid of what’s being captured about you online, then perhaps the answer is to be more aware of your behavior in public places. The Guthrie case confirmed that what’s found on the internet is enduring, not necessarily endearing.

Let’s hope reason overcomes the backlash Ring is now facing. Killing the Search Party feature would be a doggone shame.

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