You Ring Camera (owned by Amazon) work with police on surveillance

22 Sep 2019

Digital rights group Fight for the Future has compiled a map that shows the breadth of Amazon Ring partnerships with local police f

or the first time.  To narrow down the map to show where local law enforcement works with Ring, users can filter the map for “Police” and se

arch for the word “Ring.”.These Amazon Ring partnerships with police are the perfect example. A private individual can buy a private surveil

lance device from a private company and install it at their private residence, but then the information it collects can be transmitted to go

vernment authorities because that company has a for-profit partnership with the cops.\”Ring, a doorbell camera company that Amazon acquired

in April 2018, has been minting partnership after partnership with local law enforcement that would let consumers share security footage fro

m their doorsteps with police through Ring’s Neighborhood app to aid police investigations – though a customer must actively opt in.  Althou

gh Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff filed a patent describing the use of cameras to identify a person’s face in 2018, a spokesperson for Ring said, “

Ring does not use facial recognition technology.” But in an October 2018 BuzzFeed News report, Amazon declined to comment when asked to commit to keep the data generated by each of these companies completely separate.

more