Ring

Ring partners with Flock Safety and Axon, reversing privacy commitments and expanding police surveillance

| Importance: 9/10

Amazon’s Ring announced partnerships with both Flock Safety and Axon, marking a dramatic reversal of its January 2024 commitment to limit police access to user footage. The partnerships enable law enforcement agencies to request Ring doorbell camera footage through third-party platforms …

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Ring ends 'Request for Assistance' feature allowing police to request user footage

| Importance: 7/10

Amazon’s Ring announced it would discontinue its “Request for Assistance” (RFA) tool, which had allowed police departments and public safety agencies to request video footage from doorbell camera owners through the Neighbors app. The policy change, effective immediately, marked a …

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FTC fines Ring $5.8 million for employees' illegal surveillance of customers' private videos

| Importance: 8/10

The Federal Trade Commission announced a $5.8 million settlement with Ring after finding the company compromised customers’ privacy by allowing employees and contractors to access private videos and failing to implement basic security protections that enabled hackers to take control of …

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Ring admits providing police with warrantless access to user footage 11 times in 2022

| Importance: 9/10

In response to questions from Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Amazon vice president Brian Huseman disclosed in a July 1 letter that Ring had provided police with user camera footage on 11 occasions during 2022 without obtaining user consent or court warrants. Amazon justified these warrantless …

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Ring announces Always Home Cam, autonomous drone for indoor home surveillance

| Importance: 7/10

At Amazon’s Fall 2020 hardware event, Ring announced the Always Home Cam, a fully autonomous indoor security drone designed to fly preset paths through homes when triggered by Ring alarms or user commands. Ring President Leila Rouhi explained the product was created because “when …

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Ring announces partnerships with 400+ police departments, building massive surveillance network

| Importance: 8/10

Ring announced it had established partnerships with more than 400 police departments across the United States, marking the first time the company publicly disclosed the scale of its law enforcement surveillance network. The announcement revealed that since Amazon’s 2018 acquisition, Ring had …

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The Intercept reveals Ring employees in Ukraine had unfettered access to customer video feeds

| Importance: 8/10

The Intercept published an investigation on January 10, 2019 revealing that beginning in 2016, Ring provided its Ukraine-based research and development team with virtually unfettered access to a folder on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service containing every video created by every Ring camera …

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Ring launches Neighbors app creating crowdsourced surveillance network

| Importance: 7/10

Ring launched its standalone Neighbors app on iOS and Android devices, marking its first major product release since Amazon’s acquisition two months earlier. The free app allows users to share photos and videos of alleged suspicious activity, creating a crowdsourced surveillance network …

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Amazon acquires Ring for over $1 billion, creating foundation for private surveillance network

| Importance: 8/10

Amazon announced its acquisition of Ring, a maker of smart doorbell cameras and home security systems, in a deal Reuters reported cost over $1 billion. The acquisition marked one of Amazon’s largest purchases and represented a major expansion into home surveillance infrastructure. Ring, …

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