XPost: alt.privacy, alt.privacy.anon-server

A Data & Society report interviewed doorbell camera users and delivery
drivers to understand how surveillance is affecting both, for the worse.

by Edward Ongweso Jr

October 19, 2022, 12:38pm

Networked doorbell surveillance cameras like Amazon's Ring are
everywhere, and have changed the nature of delivery work by letting
customers take on the role of bosses to monitor, control, and discipline workers, according to a recent report by the Data & Society tech
research institute.

"The growing popularity of Ring and other networked doorbell cameras has normalized home and neighborhood surveillance in the name of safety and security," Data & Society’s Labor Futures program director Aiha Nguyen
and research analyst Eve Zelickson write. "But for delivery drivers,
this has meant their work is increasingly surveilled by the doorbell
cameras and supervised by customers. The result is a collision between
the American ideas of private property and the business imperatives of
doing a job."

Thanks to interviews with surveillance camera users and delivery
drivers, the researchers are able to dive into a few major developments interacting here to bring this to a head. Obviously, the first one is
the widespread adoption of doorbell surveillance cameras like Ring. Just
as important as the adoption of these cameras, however, is the rise of
delivery work and its transformation into gig labor.

The popularity of networked doorbell surveillance cameras was not an
inevitable outcome, but a development that companies like Amazon have cultivated through a variety of well-documented methods. The company has
spent years stoking suburban paranoia, then offering Ring surveillance
cameras as a salve. It has partnered with police departments (at least
2,000 as of this summer) to offer Ring cameras for free or at a steep
discount. Ring surveillance cameras are offered at a discount during
Prime Day, the pagan holiday celebrating Amazon’s consumption cult. The
company is even launching a Ring surveillance footage TV show. Each of
these methods have also been part of the company’s monopoly speedrun
which has shifted commerce away from physical brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce and delivery workers.

As the report lays out, Ring cameras allow customers to surveil delivery workers and discipline their labor by, for example, sharing shaming
footage online. This dovetails with the “gigification” of Amazon’s
delivery workers in two ways: labor dynamics and customer behavior.

Consider Amazon's Prime program, which created with its promise of near- instantaneous delivery an immediate logistics problem for Amazon. In
response, the company created an on-demand delivery driver workforce:
Amazon Flex. Like other labor platforms (Uber, DoorDash, etc.), Flex
drivers are classified as independent contractors and are denied
overtime pay, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance, and standard
labor rights or protections. In exchange, they were given the "freedom"
to have variable pay, to cover their own vehicle maintenance, find their
own health insurance, and risk their bodies.

"Gig workers, including Flex drivers, are sold on the promise of
flexibility, independence and freedom. Amazon tells Flex drivers that
they have complete control over their schedule, and can work on their
terms and in their space," Nguyen and Zelickson write. "Through
interviews with Flex drivers, it became apparent that these marketed
perks have hidden costs: drivers often have to compete for shifts, spend
hours trying to get reimbursed for lost wages, pay for wear and tear on
their vehicle, and have no control over where they work."

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