Ring Ends Partnership with Flock Safety Amid Privacy Concerns
Following a Super Bowl advertisement that raised eyebrows regarding privacy, Ring has decided to terminate its collaboration with Flock Safety, a tech surveillance firm.
In a written statement, Ring noted, “After a comprehensive review, we have determined that the planned Flock Safety integration will require significantly more time and resources than anticipated. As a result, we have made the joint decision to cancel the planned integration. The integration was never initiated, so Ring customer video was never sent to Flock Safety.”
Flock Safety also issued a statement, asserting, “We believe this decision will allow both companies to best serve their respective customers and communities. Flock remains committed to supporting law enforcement with tools that are fully configurable to suit local laws and policies, and will continue to work directly with public officials and community leaders.”
The partnership, announced in October 2025, aimed to launch a feature called Community Requests. This would allow public safety agencies to solicit assistance from the public for criminal investigations, including requests for relevant Ring camera footage. Users could choose whether or not to share their videos.
The controversial ad featured Ring’s Search Party capability, which employs AI to let users browse feeds from other users’ cameras in search of specific visual elements. While it suggested usefulness for finding lost pets, many viewers expressed concerns about its potential for tracking individuals.
One Twitter user remarked, “That Ring commercial actually used dogs as Trojan horses for police and surveillance state expansion. What’s worse is that many people will fall into it. Many more have already fallen into it.”
Surveillance footage from doorbells and porches has played a pivotal role in solving high-profile crimes recently. For example, in December 2025, police utilized neighborhood footage to identify a suspect in a shooting near Brown University. Ring referenced this incident in its statement.
“When a shooting occurred near Brown University in December 2025, every second mattered. Providence Police asked the community for help and issued a community request. Within hours, seven neighbors responded and shared 168 videos capturing critical moments of the incident. A video identified a new key witness and helped police identify the suspect’s vehicle and solve the case,” Ring explained.
The FBI also utilized Google Nest doorbell footage to reveal a masked person of interest in the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie.
Prior to the Super Bowl, activists had been urging Ring to cut ties with Flock, raising alarms that Flock’s network could assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A protest is planned outside Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, demanding Ring sever its connections with Flock, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
