Amazon’s ‘surveillance as a service’ patent

2019-06-21
Amazon Drones Surveillance

Amazon’s delivery drones have not joined the postal service yet. They could be a potential legal minefield regarding who would have responsibility if they hurt someone, and ownership of the sky above property owners land. Now, online bookstore gone big-tech monster has patented a technology that could use the drones as a home security surveillance system.

The patent says customers could pay for visits on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis, and the drones could have night vision cameras and microphones to expand their sensing capabilities.

The first concern that comes to mind is privacy. What if your neighbor wants to use these drones, but you don’t really want to give Amazon permission to view your homes? Well, the patent says the drones would use a geo-fencing technology so only footage of the houses they’re permitted to view would be viewed.

When it comes to patents you have to realize that they don’t add up to much. Tech companies are always filing weird and wonderful patents. At the same time, this is the company that brought us Alexa so should they be trusted?