Let’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state | The Verge

PodcastsAITechLet’s talk about Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance stateThe security camera maker’s Search Party feature, advertised during the Super Bowl, has sparked a surveillance backlash.by Nilay PatelFeb 16, 2026, 3:00 PM UTCLinkShareNilay Patel is editor-in-chief of The Verge, host of the Decoder podcast, and co-host of The Vergecast.Today, let’s talk about the camera company Ring, lost dogs, and the surveillance state.You probably saw this ad during the Super Bowl a couple of weekends ago:Since it aired for a massive audience at the Super Bowl, Ring’s Search Party commercial has become a lightning rod for controversy — it’s easy to see how the same technology that can find lost dogs can be used to find people, and then used to invade our privacy in all kinds of uncomfortable ways, by cops and regular people alike.Ring in particular has always been proud of its cooperation with law enforcement. That raises big questions about our civil rights, especially since Ring announced a partnership last fall with a company called Flock Safety, whose systems have been accessed by ICE. There’s some complication to that — we’ll come back to it in a bit. The backlash to Ring’s Super Bowl ad was swift, intense, and effective: the data company PeakMetrics says conversation about the ad on social platforms like X actually peaked two days after the Super Bowl, and the vibes, as they measured them, were strikingly negative. I mean, you know it’s bad when Matt Nelson, who runs the we...