Amazon’s popular smart doorbell brand, Ring, has rebutted claims that video footage from Ring doorbells and security cameras is being accessed by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more commonly known as ICE.
Accusations stemmed from Ring’s relationship with the security hardware and software company, Flock Safety. It was announced in October that the companies would be partnering to deliver a new Ring feature called ‘Community Requests’. This enables neighbors (if they choose) to share video footage with local public safety agencies, securely and privately.
However, it’s been reported by Gadget Review that the controversial federal law enforcement agency can access said footage via federal data networks.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean that all your Ring footage ends up in a federal database; you actually have to volunteer the footage first. But the Gadget Review article doesn’t pull any punches, stating: “This isn’t speculation – it’s documented infrastructure.”
Stuff has reported that the Flock Safety and Ring partnership, although announced, is not yet live, while citing a quote via The Verge from Amazon PR Yassi Yarger, who said: “Ring has no partnership with ICE, does not give ICE videos, feeds, or back-end access, and does not share video with them”.
As the same article points out, though, it’s what happens to the footage once it’s out of Ring’s hands that has sparked the controversy. However, if you’re a Ring user with any concerns, you can simply turn off the ‘Community Requests’ feature within the app.
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