Amazon is one of the most powerful companies in the world. The trillion-dollar conglomerate has its fingers in e-commerce, advertising, streaming and more recently surveillance. Since the launch of Alexa devices, Ring doorbells and the Neighbor app, Amazon has eyes and ears everywhere and in doing so has created one of the largest public surveillance rings in the world.
It’s kind of scary when you think about how much influence Amazon has on the world. What started as a humble book-selling platform from the garage of Jeff Bezos’ rental apartment (thanks to a big investment from his parents) is now one of the most valuable brands in the world alongside Apple, Microsoft and Walmart. But giving civilians access to CCTV that can be shared amongst communities and accessed by law enforcement has created even more of a divide between race and class in more affluent, primarily white areas in the States.
