Amazon's Ring has terminated its planned partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety, citing resource allocation. This decision follows public backlash and heightened privacy concerns sparked by a recent Super Bowl ad and broader fears of a surveillance society, though Ring stated the ad was unrelated to Flock. The integration, which would have allowed sharing of Ring footage with law enforcement, never launched.
Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has officially ended its planned partnership with Flock Safety, a police surveillance technology company known for its automated license-plate reading systems. Ring stated the 'joint decision' was due to the integration requiring 'significantly more time and resources than anticipated,' and both companies confirmed no Ring customer videos were ever shared with Flock Safety as the integration never launched. This termination follows a wave of public backlash and increased scrutiny over privacy concerns. A recent 30-second Ring Super Bowl ad, featuring a 'Search Party' feature that helps find a lost dog through a network of cameras, sparked fears of a 'dystopian surveillance society.' While Ring clarified that the Search Party feature was unrelated to Flock, the ad intensified existing anxieties. Critics, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Democratic Sen. Edward Markey, voiced strong opposition. The EFF highlighted Ring's existing biometric identification features like 'Familiar Faces' and warned of the potential for combining face recognition with neighborhood-wide searches, urging Americans to be unsettled by the potential loss of privacy. Senator Markey also called on Amazon to discontinue 'Familiar Faces' technology, noting the Super Bowl commercial 'confirmed public opposition to Ring’s constant monitoring and invasive image recognition algorithms.' Flock Safety itself has faced public outcry regarding its extensive network of cameras and its data practices, particularly amid concerns about potential collaboration with federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), although Flock maintains it does not directly partner with ICE or other Homeland Security subagencies for direct camera access. The planned partnership would have allowed Ring camera owners the option to share video footage in response to law enforcement requests made through Ring's 'Community Requests' feature.
