Amazon's Ring announced blog post On Wednesday, it announced that it would no longer allow law enforcement to: request video footage From users.
The doorbell and surveillance camera company said it is “retiring its Request for Assistance (RFA) tool” that allows police and fire departments to “request and receive video” on its Neighbors app. Ring noted that public safety agencies can continue to use the app to share the latest information and safety tips with their communities.
“Public safety posts will remain public and visible to users in their Neighbors app feed and on their public safety profile,” the company said.
It's unclear why the company decided to discontinue this feature. But privacy watchdog groups and anti-police activists have repeatedly raised concerns about the company's partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country.
Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the electronic frontier foundation, a digital privacy nonprofit, said in a statement Wednesday that “Ring will no longer be in the business of making indiscriminate and warrantless police video requests for users a platform.” I hope they will withdraw.”
of EFF The company says Ring will do more to protect customer privacy, including allowing camera devices to be “end-to-end encrypted by default and turn off default audio collection.” I believe we can.
Evan Greer of the digital rights group Fight for the Future called the end of the feature “a victory for a coalition of racial justice and human rights defenders.” CNN report.
“However, this move only scratches the surface in addressing the harm caused by Ring's dystopian business model,” Greer argued.
While supporters praise Ring's decision to prevent police from requesting users' videos, critics say the move represents a major victory for thieves, rather than making it more difficult for law enforcement to gather evidence. I'm worried about that.
In 2021, under pressure from digital rights groups, Ring changed its Neighbors app policy to allow police video requests to be made available to the public. Law enforcement agencies have previously been able to send private emails to users requesting video footage.
Police can access Ring's video footage if they obtain a search warrant. Additionally, Ring reserves the right to provide video footage to law enforcement authorities without a warrant in emergency situations. The company admitted to submitting videos to police 11 times by mid-2022 without notifying users.
In May 2023, Ring will Settlement amount: $5.8 million Filed with the US Federal Trade Commission citing privacy concerns. According to the FCC, the company gave its employees unrestricted access to users' video data.
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