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Amazon gets U.S. patent to use delivery drones for surveillance service

61 points by rectang 7y ago

nerdbaggy 7y ago
I don’t think this really means much. Companies love to incentivize their employees for coming up with patent ideas. This could very well be one of those ideas
- arkades 7y ago
  They already have a facial recognition service.
- DVassallo 7y ago
  The incentives are quite soft. You get a “good job” email from your boss and maybe your boss’s boss. But nothing else. (8 years at Amazon, and 5 granted parents — I’m embarrassed to admit!) They were going to be useful for my immigration visa renewal though. My L1 renewal got stuck with a request for evidence, and the lawyers thought that patents are excellent evidence of outstanding ability to the eyes of the gov. Eventually I got my green card before my L1 evidence got processed, so I didn’t get to see if that would have helped.
  - nerdbaggy 7y ago
    Didn’t realize they incentivized it so little. I know that Cisco gives you a few thousand once the patent is approved.
  - cylinder 7y ago
    Patents shouldn't impact an L-1A but help with L1B. But they RFE every petition now anyways. They are good for green cards as you saw.
newman8r 7y ago
What exactly is novel about this patent? I'm curious what this patent would actually protect, as it seems extremely general.
salawat 7y ago
I find this odd. It almost seems a bit like patenting a Ponzi scheme. While one can make the argument that surveillance via delivery has positive uses; this seems like it's getting close to stalker/PI territory, one which is downright illegal, the other tends to have at least some level of regulation/licensing around it. Also, any data collection capability by the drone swarms is going to be streaming all the time most likely, so I'd have significant concerns w.r.t. data storage/destruction. Also, what level of due diligence is Amazon going to actually do to ensure someone requesting the service is actually a resident authorized to give permission for data collection at that location anyway? I can see this type of thing getting abused to case entire locale's under the right circumstances. Frankly, big tech sentiment going the way it is, I sure hope these things stick to the streets; I can see the more trespassing conscious getting a bit more aggressive about unexpected drones over their property.
tracer4201 7y ago
The concept is really interesting, IMO. Disclaimer: I’m own about $500K in my portfolio in Amazon. As a shareholder - this is great. Not because I want to stifle competition but because if another company was granted the patent, Amazon would be locked out. As a general citizen, Amazon is not the issue. To me this is not a concept that you can own a patent on. The patent system is broken. I don’t know how to fix it other than voting.

61 points by rectang 7y ago

I don’t think this really means much. Companies love to incentivize their employees for coming up with patent ideas. This could very well be one of those ideas

arkades 7y ago
They already have a facial recognition service.
DVassallo 7y ago
The incentives are quite soft. You get a “good job” email from your boss and maybe your boss’s boss. But nothing else. (8 years at Amazon, and 5 granted parents — I’m embarrassed to admit!) They were going to be useful for my immigration visa renewal though. My L1 renewal got stuck with a request for evidence, and the lawyers thought that patents are excellent evidence of outstanding ability to the eyes of the gov. Eventually I got my green card before my L1 evidence got processed, so I didn’t get to see if that would have helped.
- nerdbaggy 7y ago
  Didn’t realize they incentivized it so little. I know that Cisco gives you a few thousand once the patent is approved.
- cylinder 7y ago
  Patents shouldn't impact an L-1A but help with L1B. But they RFE every petition now anyways. They are good for green cards as you saw.

newman8r 7y ago

What exactly is novel about this patent? I'm curious what this patent would actually protect, as it seems extremely general.

salawat 7y ago

I find this odd. It almost seems a bit like patenting a Ponzi scheme. While one can make the argument that surveillance via delivery has positive uses; this seems like it's getting close to stalker/PI territory, one which is downright illegal, the other tends to have at least some level of regulation/licensing around it. Also, any data collection capability by the drone swarms is going to be streaming all the time most likely, so I'd have significant concerns w.r.t. data storage/destruction. Also, what level of due diligence is Amazon going to actually do to ensure someone requesting the service is actually a resident authorized to give permission for data collection at that location anyway? I can see this type of thing getting abused to case entire locale's under the right circumstances. Frankly, big tech sentiment going the way it is, I sure hope these things stick to the streets; I can see the more trespassing conscious getting a bit more aggressive about unexpected drones over their property.

tracer4201 7y ago

The concept is really interesting, IMO. Disclaimer: I’m own about $500K in my portfolio in Amazon. As a shareholder - this is great. Not because I want to stifle competition but because if another company was granted the patent, Amazon would be locked out. As a general citizen, Amazon is not the issue. To me this is not a concept that you can own a patent on. The patent system is broken. I don’t know how to fix it other than voting.