Video Doorbell Maker Ring Partners With 405 Police Agencies

If you buy a Ring doorbell camera, don't be surprised if your local police department one day requests access to it.

Amazon-owned Ring said today it has partnered with 405 police agencies across the US so officials can more easily access video footage captured by the doorbell cameras. However, the same partnerships have raised alarms among privacy advocates who fear Ring is paving the way for a US surveillance state.

The arrangements made headlines in July when Motherboard reported on Ring's partnership with police in Lakeland, Florida. The department there got 15 free doorbell cams and each time a resident downloaded Ring's Neighbors app, Lakeland police got $10 toward another $130 Ring camera, the report said.

That free Neighbors app functions as a digital neighborhood watch. Residents can tap into crime reports and get safety information from their local police department. But police departments can also request footage from Ring owners via a portal that allows police "to view Ring customers on a handy, Google-powered map, but it also makes requesting customer surveillance video a matter of several clicks," The Intercept reported in February.

Here's the police video-request email Ring sends to users. Note the difference between the big "Share now" button and "Please unsubscribe" link. Also: "If you would like ... to make your neighborhood safer, this is a great opportunity." (Who could say no?) https://t.co/db4w8nDzey pic.twitter.com/Rv8ffccR2R

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) August 28, 2019

Last month, Motherboard said Ring likely worked with "dozens" of police departments, but Ring today acknowledged that the real number is 405.

"Neighbors and local law enforcement have achieved amazing results by working together through the Neighbors app," Ring said in a blog post. The thwarted crimes include "getting stolen guns off the streets to helping families keep their children safe, and even recovering stolen medical supplies for a diabetic child."

But not everyone is so sure. "Big Brother is watching —right at our front doors," tweeted the American Civil Liberties Union in response to the news, which was first reported by The Washington Post.

"Ring terrifies people into thinking their homes are in danger, and then Amazon sells more cameras," the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a blog post earlier this month.

Ring is downplaying the surveillance fears by stressing that the Neighbors app is designed to limit what information police can collect from users' Ring products, which also include outdoor security cameras. For example, owners are never identified by name to the police or through their exact address. Email address and location information are only shared when a user voluntarily permits access to a video recording.

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That said, journalists have uncovered evidence the company is teaching police departments how best to convince Ring customers to turn over their security cam footage.

The debate comes as Amazon has faced pushback over its own facial-recognition technology, which critics also fear will enable mass surveillance. In the meantime, Ring says it's calling for feedback from customers on how to improve the Neighbors app. The company also published a map of departments using its tech.

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