In this week's post, professor Anthony Miyazaki, talks about a very interesting subject.
A UK firm called Internet Eyes, would pay YOU to catch criminals right from your home computer desk, by alerting the store administrator about suspicious activity instantaneously by instant message and a picture capture of the particular moment.
At first I thought WOW! this is a great idea!...but then, I really started to think about all the different aspects and issues of this concept and I stared to doubt about my initial thought.
First, is not so simple, in order to become a user observer you have to subscribe to the website by filling out a registration form with all your personal information for their database and accept their privacy policy agreement, etc ...but to complete your subscription...guess this..
YOU HAVE TO PAY! Yes, pay.
There are 3 subscription packages for the observer user starting at ￡1.99 per month (which equals to $ 3.176 USD), but it doesn't end there, this company will pay for your time watching the cameras for suspicious activities the following:
- More than 30 hours per month - ￡0.50 – (equivalent to $ 0.798 USD)
- More than 45 hours per month - ￡1.00 (equivalent to $ 1.596 USD)
- More than 60 hours per month - ￡1.50 (equivalent to $ 2.394 USD)
On top of this, the website will not pay the observers for every time the catch a criminal, instead, they will pay only to 1 user out of thousands users with the most points (which are gained every time you catch a criminal) the amount of a ￡1,000 (equivalent to $ 1,596 USD).
In my opinion this is ridiculous, from the user point of view, I would feel less foolish If I would do it for free only as a public service function.
This company wants to portrait this website's concept like is some kind of SOCIAL PROJECT, similar to the "Neighbourhood Watch", when in fact they only care of making profit from the two ends of the rope, with a membership to the subscriber observers and a membership to the affiliated business.
I do understand this is a business, and there is nothing wrong about making money with an online profitable innovative business idea, but I don't like that this company markets this site like some kind of online community service or novel idea.
Moreover, I started to research about this website online and I ended up in their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Internet-Eyes/108455634071 and I got surprised by the amount of angry messages and complains about this website not working properly, not paying the rewards or people calling it a SCAM and even against HUMAN RIGHTS! haha I know that person perhaps went a little too far, but the point is a lot of reviews online don't trust and don't recommend this website..bottom line this company needs to do some major online PR, if they want to gain trust and expand globally, specially because they are an ONLINE based business.
To conclude, I believe this idea has potential and the website could be a better and bigger online community if they would reshape their current business model by offering free registration to user observers, pay a small reward every time an observer catches criminal activity (confirmed by administrator), keep the contest price for person with most points (most catches) as a bonus and keep charging affiliated businesses to receive the service of thousands of good willing anonymous observers..and why not adding some non intrusive, tailored, small advertising ads to the sides of the screen (like facebook) to get some extra income.
Do you agree?
REFERENCED WEBSITES
http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2010/10/internet-eyes-are-watching.html
http://interneteyes.co.uk/community/index.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Internet-Eyes/108455634071
http://www.geek.com/articles/news/internet-eyes-will-pay-you-to-watch-security-camera-feeds-2010106/
http://www.cartoonstock.com/
I'm surprised to hear that Internet Eyes is a scam. I mean, the whole concept of their business is a little out there, but I thought it could be viable. Now it seems that it's just a scheme to get paying subscribers, not actually stop crimes as they happen. I don't know about you, but I don't find shopping entertaining, and I certainly don't think I would find much enjoyment in watching (and paying to watch!) other people meander about the aisles.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is absolutely a scam. The company internet eyes are charging its users to view crimes as well as probably charge the owners of the CCTV a nominal fee as well. This is ridiculous. You also mentioned that the company records all of the person’s information. Im sure they also make money off of selling the users email/address and other personal information. I do not think their portrayal of this being a social experiment is correct. This company is only allowed to operate in the EU which is obvious because it violates several U.S. constitutional laws. For example, have you noticed on the TV show COPS that individual’s faces are blurred to protect their identity? In order to remove that the person(s) would have to sign a waiver. I believe that people will try to do anything for money and if playing this game affords them the opportunity to do so they will.
ReplyDeletePaula, totally agree with you on this being "against human rights" haha... I could not believe something like this would exist (and the human mind surprises me again). I started looking into it and according to the magazine Information Age, the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) has good practices guidelines that indicate that businesses can only hold the CCTV footage for thirty days before it must be deleted. So, going with this, wouldn't it be unethical to just make this footage available to everyone in the World Wide Web, knowing that it will not disappear after 30 days? I think so.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that this should be a PUBLIC SERVICE function, but then again...people gotta eat! This is kind of like a "Crime Stoppers" kind of thing. Although the company may be in it for the money, they are providing a good service to both ends. The store owners and managers can feel safe and secure that maybe the employee may also be part of a skim. The crime stopper is being payed for their services, and also does not have to worry about his or her life being endangered when something bad does indeed happen, like a robbery in process.
ReplyDeleteI was also surprised about all the angry comments on Facebook. There is even a group against Internet Eyes Facebook Group They are interesting discussions of pros and cons about this company. In a way as Joseph said, this is an good alternative for many people that are in the need of security for their businesses and they cannot afford to have an internal loss prevention team that handle it.
ReplyDeleteI have just come across this blog, although it's a little dated and IE's have changed a few things. It is still flawed. There is an anti internet eyes page if anyone is interested !https://www.facebook.com/sputnik.corp?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Anti-Internet-Eyes/133275183505032
ReplyDeleteApologies the link above may not work , just search anti internet eyes on facebook .
ReplyDelete